An American Congregationalist clergyman, was the outstanding theologian and scholar of colonial New England in the 1700's. In his most famous book Freedom of the Will (1754), he upheld such Calvinistic doctrines as predestination. But he insisted that man had freedom to choose alternative courses when forces outside him "inclined" his will to choose. Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, in East Windsor, Conn. He received A.B. and A.M. degrees from Yale University. In 1727, he was ordained and installed as assistant in the church of Solomon Stoddard, his grandfather, at Northhampton, Mass. When Stoddard died in 1729, Edwards became pastor. The religious revival, a part of the Great Awakening, came to his church in 1734. His famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God"(1741), was preached during his revival. Edwards' discipline of young people for reading "immoral" literature and his refusal to give communion to unconverted church members caused dismissal in 1750. He then served as a missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, Mass., from 1751-1757. Edwards became president of the college of New England (now Princeton) in 1758, but died later that same year of smallpox.
For more information about Edwards and works by him, about him go to Monergism.
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