Edwards Amasa Park

Edwards Amasa Park (December 29, 1808, Providence, Rhode Island - June 4, 1900) was an American Congregational theologian.

Biography

He was the son of Calvin Park (1774-1847) (a Congregational minister who was a professor from 1804 to 1825 at Brown University, and pastor at Stoughton, Massachusetts 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. 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 in 1835; and Bartlet professor of sacred rhetoric (1836-1847), and Abbot professor of Christian theology (1847-1881) at Andover. 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. He left his theological impress on the Bibliotheca Sacra, 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.