Jonathan Edwards

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What to expect

Jonathan Edwards is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.

In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared―a frontier civilization at the center of a conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. Drawing on newly available sources, Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards’ life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards’ life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture.

Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American.

Critics Review

  • “A magisterial biography.”

    Wall Street Journal
  • “A biography…of the mighty American preacher, logician, and theologian who lighted the fuse on the [eighteenth century] Great Awakening.”

    New York Times Book Review
  • “Magnificent…This is a book that tells us as much about the intellectual foundations of America as it does about Jonathan Edwards.”

    Daily Telegraph (London)
  • “Superb and engrossing…Marsden has given us the most comprehensive account we have of the man who is the spiritual godfather of our nation.”

    Washington Post
  • “Thorough, dispassionate, and enlightening…Outstanding.”

    Sunday Telegraph (London)
  • “A triumph of scholarship, but also of readability…[A] richly satisfying and interesting portrait of the man and his time.”

    Times Literary Supplement

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