Photo: Unsplash – Alex Woods

What is the role of emotion in the Christian life – and in the life of the pastor? This is  a vital – and controversial – question. I have found Jonathan Edwards an extremely helpful guide in thinking through this vexed question – for he considers it from a biblical perspective, and (in my view at least) he comes to a balanced position, which helps us to put emotions in their right place. Hence this is my third post on why I appreciate the thought of Jonathan Edwards.

Edwards wrote extensively about what he calls the ‘religious affections’ in the context of the religious revivals that had taken place in New England in the 1730s-40s. During the course of the revivals there had been many outpourings of emotion. Sometimes these were taken to excess, and the critics of the revival seized on these excesses to dismiss the revivals altogether. Edwards sought to tread the path of genuine emotional response to God’s work, and to avoid the cliff faces on either side of cold rationalism and emotional excess.

I should say that in what follows I’m indebted not only to Jonathan Edwards but also to Dr Garry Williams and his chapter on ‘The Puritan Psychology’ in his excellent book Silent Witnesses.

The place of affections in our whole being

It’s worth first noting that God made us emotional beings. Prior to the Fall the first man and woman had emotions; and their emotions were integrated into a whole-of-life and -being love and devotion to the God with whom they walked in the Garden of Eden. They loved and delighted in God and each other with all their heart (eg Genesis 2:23). But of course it is not that way now. Our whole being has been marred by the Fall – including our intellect, emotions and wills.

How are we to understand ourselves now, in our fallen (and redeemed) state? First, it’s worth noting that Edwards describes us as unitary rather than composite beings. Quoting Williams:

(Edwards) strongly insists that the human soul is not divisible into different faculties. His term for the unitary person is ‘soul’ or ‘mind.’ He does believe in distinguishable faculties of the soul, but they are not to be understood as divisible components… Rather they denote the soul as it is capable of different activities. The understanding is the faculty by which the soul perceives, speculates, discerns, views and judges. The inclination is the faculty by which the soul likes and dislikes…

Silent Witnesses (97-98)

To put it another way: We often think of ourselves in terms of mind, heart / emotions, and will. But Edwards says rather we are a unitary being – a ‘soul.’ My soul perceives certain things – for example, a view or a mathematical sum. In this I am using my understanding. My soul also likes (and dislikes) certain things – for example, honey or the music of Ed Sheeran. In this I am using my inclinations.

When as a result of my inclination towards something I choose it – a honey sandwich for example – that is an act of the will. The ‘will’ in that sense is a sub-set of the inclination.

What we might call ‘emotions’ would also fit in the inclination category. But even here, Edwards differentiates between ‘passions’ and ‘affections.’ What is the difference? Affections are “the more vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul”. (Affections p96). They are a strong inclination towards something resulting in us moving towards it with our will. And we do so in an enduring, abiding way – we continue to move towards it, to choose it.

By contrast, passions (which he views largely negatively) are “vigorously lively actings of the will… that are more sudden, and whose effects on the animal spirits are more violent, and the mind more overpowered, and less in its own command.” (page 104, Affections p98). We might differentiate the love a husband has for his wife (affection) with the anger or lust a person feels towards another (passion).

It’s worth noting that not all affections are spiritual or godly. We will consider in a later post the ‘new sense’ that a person is given when they are born again. This new sense impacts on the affections in the power of the Holy Spirit. Williams describes the impact like this:

Our affections continue the same as they were in their nature and essence; but they are so cured by grace as that their properties, qualities and inclinations are all cleansed and renewed.

Silent Witnesses (101)

Godly affections in the Bible and the Christian life

Where is all this leading to? The genuine Christian will not just be persuaded in their understanding that God is real, that Christianity is true, that Jesus rose from the dead and so on. They will also have affections: a strong inclination towards Jesus, the Trinity, and God’s people. And they will be inclined against the things God dislikes – most notably sin. This will be part of the Spirit’s work in the believer – part of the new sense that is imparted in us.

Edwards highlights a number of godly affections in the bible – and notes how they are exercised by saints such as king David (most notably in the Psalms), the apostle Paul, as well as the Lord Jesus himself. Indeed, the whole emphasis of the book is that “true religion, in great part, consists of holy affections.” The highest affection, for Edwards, is love.

Of course, we’re all made differently, and our affective response to God’s revelation to us will be different. We cannot prescribe or predict how a person should respond -and Edwards clarifies that religious affections are not in themselves evidence of what he calls ‘true religion.’ But if (at one extreme) a person has no affective response to the things of God; and (at the other extreme) they respond emotionally but without substance: it is right to ask whether it is a genuine response to the God towards whom we should rightly have a strong inclination in the power of the Holy Spirit. As Edwards writes:

He who has no religious affection is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influence of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection; so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. As on the one hand there must be light in the understanding, as well as an affected and fervent heart, where there is heat without light, there can be nothing divine or heavenly in that heart; so on the other hand, where there is a kind of light without heat, a head stored with notions and speculations, with a cold and unaffected heart, there can be nothing divine in that light, that knowledge is no true spiritual knowledge of divine things.

Religious Affections

Why we need this today

We live in an age in which emotion and feelings are everything. Increasingly people think through their feelings – and are encouraged to do so. As Christians, we can either buy into this way of operating completely, or we can reject emotion altogether. Both approaches would be a mistake.

I have found that Edwards gives me a helpful, biblical way of thinking about my response to our glorious God – and for that I am very grateful.

Taking it further

For a helpful introduction to Jonathan Edwards on the soul and affections, see chapter 7 of Silent Witnesses by Garry Williams. (I should add that I am indebted to Garry for his support with a personal study project on the spiritual practices of Jonathan Edwards which I am currently undertaking).

There are lots of helpful introductions to the Religious Affections. Or try reading it yourself here.

For a helpful introduction to the place of the emotions in the Christian life, see Graham Beynon’s book.