“This is a book about the debates that swirled around the heated question whether New England’s Great Awakening was a work of the Holy Spirit. As a work of reception history, it is unparalleled in scope and attention to detail. Employing tools from social science, social history, and theology, Smart explains the terms of debate, shows how Edwards and his critics disagreed with one another, and offers an even-handed assessment of the legacies of their conflict from the 1740s and 1750s to the present. I recommend this volume to anyone interested in the history of revivals in America—but especially to those with an interest in the pneumatological questions most important to Jonathan Edwards and his heirs.”
- Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“Robert Davis Smart provides us with a thorough, impressive, and theologically informed account of one of the great debates in American history. His work will be the point of departure for future discussions of the topic.”
- George Marsden, University of Notre Dame

“Church history is replete with famous and not-so-famous clashes of differing visions of the Christian life: Valentinus and Irenaeus, Pelagius and Augustine, Erasmus and Luther—and Chauncy and Edwards. In the case of the latter, while many Edwardsean studies reference it, none have studied it as exhaustively as this fresh study by Robert Smart. He ably documents the vital importance of the showdown between these two men on the American frontier for the maturing of Edwards’s pneumatology and piety. This is a necessary read for anyone interested in the Great Awakening or the shape that Evangelicalism took in the century after Edwards’s pen had ceased to write.”
- Michael A. G. Haykin, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary