"Echoes of "The Great Awakening"" Jonathan Edwards is primarily remembered today as a gifted and influential theologian. But in eighteenth-century America, his preaching resounded from pulpits throughout New England, sparking the flame of revival that became the "Great Awakening." As the fame of this Puritan pastor and preacher of revival spread far and wide, his sermons galvanized many of his listeners into reexamining their lives and faith. Ever alert to the dangers of the religiously complacent--those who only observed the surface requirements of religion--Edwards tirelessly proclaimed the overpowering majesty and grandeur of God, and humanity's hopelessness for moral improvement short of his grace. This stirring selection of 20 messages allows readers to experience the words that swept through this young nation with a message of repentance and a call to action.

"The Excellency of Christ" was preached in Northampton, Massachusetts by Jonathan Edwards and printed in 1738. This sermon explains Christ's excellency in terms of almost contradictory conjunctions such as Christ being a lion and also a lamb at the same time. In the APPLICATION the reader is exhorted to love and embrace Christ as friend, portion and Savior because of His many excellencies.

Jonathan Edwards has been recognized as the most influential evangelical theologian of all time. Before his death at the age of fifty-four, he had sparked a new movement of Reformed evangelicals who played a major role in fueling the rise of modern missions, preaching revivals far and wide, and wielding the cutting edge of American theology. He has never gone out of print, and Christians today continue to flock to seminars and conferences on him. In this biography of the great preacher and teacher, historian Douglas Sweeney locates for us the core and key to Edwards' enduring impact. Sweeney finds that Edwards' profound and meticulous study of the Bible securely anchored his powerful preaching, his lively theological passions and his discerning pastoral work. Beyond introducing you to Edwards' life and times, this book will provide you with a model of Christian faith, thought and ministry.

Jonathan Edwards, widely considered America’s most important Christian thinker, was first and foremost a preacher and pastor who guided souls and interpreted religious experiences. His primary tool in achieving these goals was the sermon, out of which grew many of his famous treatises. This selection of Edwards’ sermons recognizes their crucial role in his life and art. The fifteen sermons, four of which have never been published before, reflect a life dedicated to experiencing and understanding spiritual truth. Chosen to represent a typical cycle of Edwards’ preaching, the sermons address a wide range of occasions, situations, and states, corporate as well as personal. The book also contains an introduction that discusses Edwards’ contribution to the sermon as a literary form, places his sermons within their social and cultural contexts, and considers his theological aims as a way of familiarizing the reader with the "order of salvation" as Edwards conceived of it. Together, the sermons and the editors’ introduction offer a rounded picture of Edwards the preacher, the sermon writer, and the pastoral theologian.