Quotes from the books Introduction:"...with the possible exception of Benjamin Franklin, Edwards was the most influential and widely-read writer of colonial America. Despite his premature death at fifty-four, the relatively small body of writings published in own lifetime, and his seemingly narrow preoccupations with the dangers of free-will Arminianism and the potential of religious revivals, new editions of his works rapidly followed one another until well into the nineteenth century. A newly edited complete edition is even under way today. ...Edwards has an intellectual and spiritual elusiveness which does not allow the reader to pour him into any pre-cast mold.... he was the most acute American analyst of the achievements of the Enlightenment ... As a New England divine, Edwards was one of the rare breed anywhere to recognize and accept the direct challenge given traditional Christianity by the physical discoveries of Newton, the psychological observations of Locke, and the popular acceptance of a "God more kind and man more worthy." He attempted to join these divergent movements together with a surprisingly bold use of the Bible as revelation....The first section of the text will allow the reader to explore the effect of the Enlightenment upon this Massachusetts clergyman. ...The second set of readings is devoted to Edwards" participation in the philosophical and theological debates which preoccupied his contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic. ...The selections conclude with a series of readings from diverse twentieth-century interpreters. "