The great awakener

Commonweal, June 6, 2003 by Edward T. Oakes

At least since the days of H. L. Mencken, Puritan-bashing has been one of the favorite parlor games of Americans wishing to free themselves from Calvinist moralism. Not the least of George Marsden's magnificent achievement is that he has shown Jonathan Edwards's greatness to a culture nearly the opposite of the one he inhabited--and converted.

Edward T. Oakes, S.J., is Chester & Margaret Paluch Professor of Theology at University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, the seminary for the Archdiocese of Chicago.