Hopkins, Samuel

Hopkins, Samuel, 1721–1803, American clergyman and theologian, b. Waterbury, Conn., grad. Yale, 1741. He was a leading disciple of Jonathan Edwards, whose theology was the foundation for his own system, later known as Hopkinsianism. For 60 years Hopkins held pastorates at Great Barrington, Mass., and at Newport, R.I. His preaching, noninspirational and severely logical, was less influential than his writings, notably his System of Doctrines (1793). His views remained potent in American religious life until after the Civil War. Hopkins was one of the first New England ministers to denounce slavery and the slave trade.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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