John Caldwell (dates unknown) was a Massachusetts minister who had immigrated to the colonies from Ireland. He was a forceful critic of the revivalism that was sweeping the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, and he gave this sermon at a Londonderry, New Hampshire Presbyterian church in 1741. Caldwell took a strong moral stance against what he saw as the overly dramatic and emotional excesses of revivalist religion. In contrast to the morally upright image he projected as a religious leader, Caldwell was later accused of fraud and theft committed while he still lived in Ireland, and he escaped to England with his career in shambles.  

John Caldwell (dates unknown) was a Massachusetts minister who had immigrated to the colonies from Ireland. He was a forceful critic of the revivalism that was sweeping the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, and he gave this sermon at a Londonderry, New Hampshire Presbyterian church in 1741. Caldwell took a strong moral stance against what he saw as the overly dramatic and emotional excesses of revivalist religion. In contrast to the morally upright image he projected as a religious leader, Caldwell was later accused of fraud and theft committed while he still lived in Ireland, and he escaped to England with his career in shambles.