Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) was one of the leading religious thinkers of colonial America. Graduating at the top of his class at Yale at the age of seventeen, he became the senior pastor of the Congregational Church in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1729 at the age of twenty-six. As pastor of the most influential church in New England at the time, his powerful preaching helped launch the revival of 1734–35 and spearheaded the more extensive Great Awakening of 1740–41.
Edwards became a friend and co-worker of renowned evangelist George Whitefield, who was then preaching throughout the American colonies. When the awakening came under attack due to various excesses and slanders, he became the leading apologist of experiential religion. His articulate defense of the revival, A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections, is now considered a masterpiece of religious psychology. While faithfully laboring at his pastoral duties, he also wrote The Life of David Brainerd and An Humble Attempt, both of which display his passions for missions and evangelism.
Edwards spent the last years of his life as a missionary to the Indians on the western frontier. While living in relative seclusion at that time, he wrote Freedom of the Will and Original Sin, both of which earned him recognition at that time as America’s greatest theologian and philosopher. His writings on theology, metaphysics, ethics, and psychology are still studied today.
A Divine Light: The Spiritual Leadership of Jonathan Edwards is the latest installment in the Leaders in Action series, which is dedicated to the notion that leadership is more "caught than taught." Each volume not only tells the story of a great leader but also highlights the ideas, traits, and circumstances that contributed to his or her role as a leader. With both theory and story, the Leaders in Action series is designed to inspire a new generation to world-class leadership.
