It has been thought that Edwards's polemical arguments were aimed against Arminianism - which denied the Calvinist idea of predestination. The author argues that Edwards's real target was a more influential one, namely deism - the belief in a creator God who does not intervene in His Creation. McDermott has done a thorough and painstaking job in piecing together Edwards's views on non-Christian religion ... a valuable resource for scholars of eighteenth-century theology