Quick Facts
- Born:
- Jan. 1, 1705, Boston
- Died:
- Feb. 10, 1787, Boston (aged 82)
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Charles Chauncy
American clergyman [1705-1787]
Charles Chauncy (born Jan. 1, 1705, Boston—died Feb. 10, 1787, Boston) was a great-grandson of the elder Charles Chauncy. He was a Congregationalist minister and one of the leading critics of the Great Awakening (q.v.) revivalist movement in the British American colonies in the mid-18th century.
A graduate of Harvard in 1721, Chauncy served the First Church of Boston from 1727 until his death. His Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England (1743) was the nascent Unitarian reply to Jonathan Edwards’ Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1742), which represented the neo-Calvinist wing of Congregationalism.
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