Edwards Amasa Park (December 29, 1808June 4, 1900) was an American

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

theologian.

Biography

Born in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts B ...

, Park was the son of Calvin Park (1774-1847) (a Congregational minister who was a professor from 1804 to 1825 at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provide ...

, and pastor at

Stoughton, Massachusetts Stoughton (official name: Town of Stoughton) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 29,281 at the 2020 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, Rhode Island, and from Cape ...

from 1826 to 1840). Edwards Amasa Park graduated at Brown University in 1826, was a teacher at Braintree for two years, and in 1831 graduated from

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambridge. ...

. He was co-pastor (with R. S. Storrs) of the orthodox Congregational church of Braintree in 1831-1833; professor of mental and moral philosophy at

Amherst Amherst may refer to: People * Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name * Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst'' * Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...

in 1835; and Bartlet professor of sacred

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate partic ...

(1836-1847), and Abbot professor of Christian theology (1847-1881) at

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

. He died at Andover on 4 June 1900. An ardent admirer of Jonathan Edwards, whose great-granddaughter he married, Park was one of the most notable American theologians and orators. He was the most prominent leader of the new school of

New England Theology New England theology (or Edwardsianism) designates a school of theology which grew up among the Congregationalists of New England, originating in the year 1732, when Jonathan Edwards began his constructive theological work, culminating a little b ...

. He left his theological impress on the ''

Bibliotheca Sacra ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' (colloquially referred to as "BibSac") is a theological journal published by Dallas Theological Seminary, first published in 1844 and the oldest theological journal in the United States. It was founded at Union Theological ...

'', which he and Bela B. Edwards took over in 1844 from Edward Robinson, who had founded it in 1843, and of which Park was assistant editor until 1851 and editor-in-chief from 1851 to 1884.

Publications

As a general statement of the position of orthodox

Congregationalism Congregationalist polity, or congregational polity, often known as congregationalism, is a system of ecclesiastical polity in which every local church (congregation) is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or "autonomous". Its first articulat ...

he drew up and annotated the ''Associate Creed of Andover Theological Seminary'' (1883), and the anonymously published ''Worcester Creed'' of 1884 was his popularized and simplified statement. He edited in 1890 '' The Atonement'', a collection of essays by various hands, prefaced by his study of the ''Rise of the Edwardean Theory of the Atonement''. Park's sermon, ''The Theology of the Intellect and that of the Feelings'', delivered in 1850 before the convention of the Congregational ministers of Massachusetts, and published in the ''

'' of July 1850, was the cause of a long and bitter controversy,

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

rather than doctrinal, with

Charles Hodge Charles Hodge (December 27, 1797 – June 19, 1878) was a Reformed Presbyterian theologian and principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. He was a leading exponent of the Princeton Theology, an orthodox Calvinist theol ...

. Some of Park's sermons were published in 1885, under the title ''Discourses on Some Theological Doctrines as Related to the Religious Character''. With Austin Phelps and

Lowell Mason Lowell Mason (January 8, 1792 – August 11, 1872) was an American music director and banker who was a leading figure in 19th-century American church music. Lowell composed over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His best-known ...

he prepared ''The Sabbath Hymn Book'' (1858). He published memoirs of Samuel Hopkins,

Nathanael Emmons Nathanael Emmons, sometimes spelled Nathaniel Emmons, (April 20, 1745 – September 23, 1840) was an American Congregational minister and influential theologian of the New Divinity school. He was born at East Haddam, Connecticut. Emmons graduated ...

, and others. See ''Professor Park and His Pupils'' (Boston, 1899), a memorial of his 90th birthday, with articles by R.S. Storrs, G.R.W. Scott, Joseph Cook, G. Frederick Wright, and others.

References

Attribution: * {{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Edwards Amasa American theologians Park, Edwards, Amasa 19th-century American memoirists Writers from Providence, Rhode Island 1808 births 1900 deaths Brown University faculty Brown University alumni Abbot Academy