David Paul McDowell is presently the Senior Pastor of Community Fellowship Church in West Chicago, IL. He was born in Schenectady, NY (1946) and graduated from Wheaton College, IL (B.A.1968), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (1971 M.Div.), Union Theological Seminary, NYC (1980 S.T.M.), and Trinity Theological Seminary, IN (2011 PH.D). He has served churches in Albany NY, Northampton MA, West Chicago IL. He has also been an assistant chaplain at the US Military Academy at West Point (1975-1980). He also served as an adjunct instructor for fifteen years at the Berkshire Institute for Christian Studies (MA). He is married to Gloria (Farneth) McDowell and they have five children and four grandchildren. He still competes in the shot put and discus on the Senior National level and is a volunteer high school track coach. He became interested in the life of Jonathan Edwards while he (McDowell) served a twenty-five year pastorate in Northampton MA; the same town where Edwards had also served for twenty-five years. His interest in Edwards introduced him to Solomon Stoddard, Edwards' grandfather, and thus his study began. McDowell hopes that his work will spark the interest of younger scholars to pursue further study of Stoddard the way so many have pursued his more famous grandson.