Part of the intriguing power of Edwards’s mentoring is the legacy he creates during and after the American Revolution. He trains his mentees to be not mere mimics but rather leaders who can reason from first principles and adapt their proclamation to the particular social context of their ministry. Edwards spawns a school of ministry known subsequently as the New Divinity, which institutionalizes Edwards’s revivalist impulses in founding Andover Seminary in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1808. Their successes in New England in local church settings and their influence on debates of the early republic are dramatic, evidenced in federalist political philosophy as well as the cause of abolition. Edwards takes traditional mentoring practices and retools them to operate in a modern and democratic world.
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