"This volume of rare sermons and documents makes an unprecedented contribution to our understanding of the 'New England Theology' as it emerged from Jonathan Edwards and continued through Edwards Amasa Park. The introduction, prepared by two seasoned Edwards scholars, represents an acute and thought-provoking analysis of the intellectual and rheological underpinnings of the New England Theology. A rich, absorbing, and always engaging collection, this volume will be of great interest to Edwards scholars and general readers alike." --Harry S. Stout, Yale University "One of the problems in studying American theology in the eighteenth and nineteenth century is that many of the sources are not easily available. The New England Theology is a marvelous anthology of central writings. Aficionados may quibble because some valuable material was left out, but this is a great collection. The introductions and editorial work of the editors are also helpful and fair minded." --Bruce Kucklick, University of Pennsylvania "This volume, collecting the major representative writings of the American disciples of Jonathan Edwards, is the first of its kind and long overdue. In the hands of Sweeney and Guelzo, the 'New Divinity' movement emerges here as a grand story, told in the medium of theology that both reflected and shaped the new republic." --Kenneth P. Minkema, Yale University "Although both historians and the general public have become increasingly fascinated by Jonathan Edwards, many know little about the thinkers who tried to carry on his legacy. Douglas Sweeney and Allen Guelzo should be commended for assembling a marvelous collection of writings." --Catherine A. Brekus, University of Chicago Divinity School "In these judicious selections accompanied by crisp and illuminating introductions, Sweeney and Guelzo ably identify the vitality and scope of the New England Theology. If you want to know something of the flavor and substance of America's first indigenous theology, this volume is the place to begin." --David W. Kling, University of Miami "This collection of the New England Theology's primary texts clearly reveals both the continuing presence of Edwardsean thought and the diversity of its expression in the century following Jonathan Edwards's death." --Ava Chamberlain, Wright State University

Edwards Amasa Park (1808-1900) of Andover championed Edwardsean Calvinism in the United States from the Jacksonian era until the very close of the nineteenth century by employing rhetorical strategies that lent his New England theology fresh apologetic usefulness. The thesis demonstrates that Park has been incorrectly identified as a Taylorite but, extending the argument of Joseph Conforti, ought to be viewed as re-casting his inherited Hopkinsian exercise scheme into a fresh historical synthesis influenced by contemporary patterns of thought. Park's own training at Andover in the irenic divinity of Moses Stuart and Leonard Woods, his application as rhetorician of the work of Hugh Blair and George Campbell and his exposure in Germany to the Vermittlungstheologie of Friedrich Tholuck and Julius Müller gave specific definition to his own theological project. Additionally, the thesis argues that Park ought not to be viewed as a romantic idealist in the line of Horace Bushnell or as a proto-liberal in advance of the Andover liberals who succeeded him. Park retained a life-long commitment to a commingled epistemology and methodology derived from Lockean empiricism, Baconian induction, natural theology and Scottish common sense realism. As a formidable apologist for his revivalist inheritance identified with Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Hopkins, Edwards Amasa Park conserved the substance and prolonged the influence of his beloved New England theology by securing for it modes of expression well fitted to his nineteenth-century audience.

A new biography of Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson (1788 - 1850), written to honor the 200th anniversary of his first mission trip from the U.S. to the Far East that would in turn mark the start of Americans joining the modern missions movement.