(1703-1758) American Puritan pastor and theologian, converted to Christ at age seventeen. Edwards entered Yale college at age thirteen and graduated with honors before age seventeen. He was a popular preacher during the Great Awakening, served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians and was elected President of Princeton college shortly before his deat at age 55. John Gerstner summed up his genius; "Edwards held firmly to the theology of his Puritan heritage, yet he read with interest the philosophy coming out of Enlightenment Europe. He had both eyes on the biblical theology that had dominated the church for centuries - and both eyes on such new thinkers as John Locke and Isaac Newton." He is best remembered for his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and his book Freedom of the Will.