Andrew Eliot

Andrew Eliot (1718–1778) was a prominent New England Congregationalist minister and theologian whose election sermons articulated the theological foundations of colonial American political thought during the Revolutionary era. As pastor of the New North Church in Boston and a leading intellectual figure, Eliot synthesized Calvinist doctrine with emerging concepts of natural rights and civic virtue, influencing the ideological framework through which colonists understood their relationship to civil authority. His published sermons, particularly *The Election Sermon*, exemplify the crucial role of ministerial discourse in legitimizing American independence and shaping the moral and theological vocabulary of the founding generation.