Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards's "Religious Affections"

Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards's "Religious Affections" | Sam Storms | Important Subject from an Interesting Man and Time.

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	Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards's "Religious Affections" Sam Storms Crossway Books, 2007 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Jonathan Edwards?s treatise Religious Affections is widely considered the most important and accurate analysis of religious experience ever written.

Unfortunately, many well-intentioned readers sit down with Religious Affections, only to give up in frustration over Edwards?s lofty style and complex argumentation.

For this reason Sam Storms, one of evangelicalism?s experts on Edwards, has attempted to bridge the gap between how Edwards said what he did in the eighteenth century and how he might say it today. In Signs of the Spirit he articulates the substance of Edwards?s arguments in a more understandable way. The point is not to ?dumb down? Jonathan Edwards but to make his work accessible to a wider audience.

This volume serves those both in and outside the academic realm as valuable preparation for, or as a companion guide to, a reading of Edwards?s Religious Affections.

?Jonathan Edwards? Religious Affections remains one of the most discerning works of spiritual psychology published in the last several centuries. Dr. Samuel Storms? unpacking of this significant work reveals once again for a new generation why the old Puritan so much deserves the most careful study today.?
Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

?Storms? repackaging of this spiritual classic meets a serious need. His essay on Edwards? personal spirituality, introducing the Personal Narrative, is almost worth the price of the book. Then his running commentary, interspersed with direct selections from the Narrative, are exceedingly helpful.?
Gerald R. McDermott, Professor of Religion, Roanoke College

?After nearly 300 years, these gems of Edwards? continue to sparkle. Sam Storms has done a superb job interpreting them for twenty-first-century followers of Jesus. His vivid paraphrases are easy to read and always edifying.?
Douglas A. Sweeney, Associate Professor of Church History, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

?These texts of Jonathan Edwards have nourished the church for nearly three centuries. In Sam Storms? capable hands they?ll now speak clearly, plainly, and powerfully to the church today and for generations to come. If you?ve ever wanted to tackle Edwards but have shied away, you no longer have an excuse.?
Stephen J. Nichols, author of Heaven on Earth: Capturing Jonathan Edwards?s Vision of Living in Between

?In reading through this book, I feel like I am looking over Sam Storms? shoulder, reading Edwards together with him. At times, he pauses to interpret Edwards for me; at other times, he places Edwards? comments in their historical context. At all times, Sam?s love and respect for Edwards shines through clearly.?
Glenn Kreider, Professor of Theological Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

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True Christianity is more than walking an aisle

In a day in which many professing believers assume their conversion is genuine because they walked an aisle and signed a card, Signs of the
Spirit serves as a helpful guide in discerning true spiritual life from forgery and Christian nominalism.

During a time of revival and awakening, when it seemed as though everybody was demonstrating signs of spiritual fervor and life, Jonathan Edwards penned "the most important and accurate analysis of religious experience ever written" (p. 21). Edwards sought to determine what the true nature of spiritual life is and how to tell when it was merely outward. "Forged in the fires of revival in eighteenth century New England", Edwards discernment into the essence of true spirituality addresses a serious modern need. Storms doubts if there is "a more pressing and urgent issue for the church today" (p. 37).

I am nearly done reading Signs of the Spirit, a book which provides an interpretation of two of Jonathan Edwards writings, Religious Affections, as well as Personal Narrative.

What, according to Jonathan Edwards is the essence of true spirituality? Nothing less than religious affections. Storms begins his analysis of Edwards by citing 1 Peter 1:8, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory". This verse serves as a theme for the entire book, in which Edwards maintains a strict balance, avoiding emotionalism on the other hand and rationalism on the other.

"And of what does true spirituality consist? Peter identifies two things: love for Jesus and joy in Jesus. Though his readers did not see Christ with the physical eye, their spiritual vision was one of unashamed and extravagant affection for the Son of God. Though their outward suffering was grievous and painful, their inner joy was a pleasure of such depth that no trial could diminish it" (p. 39-40).

This seems to be the mark of a genuine believer. Not one who walks an aisle and professes to be a Christian, but one whose true and deepening joy in God is forged through the pains of life, and yet cannot be suppressed. The genius of Edwards is that he rules out the stoic and rationalist as much as he does the prosperity seeker. We will address this in later posts, but for now it will suffice to say that Jonathan Edwards was just as intolerant of people who denounced revival for fear of its excess as he was on those unwisely commended it all as genuine, without exercising discernment.

Although his opponents were offended at "fanatical excess in the behavior of those who participated in revival", and argued that it was an "enlightened mind, and not raised affections, ought to be the guide" (p. 31) of true spirituality, Edwards maintained that "true religion, in great part, consist in holy affections" (p. 33) not merely mental assent. But, as Storms also mentions, Edwards also avoided thoughtless emotionalism, and his "exaltation of the affections was never at the expense of reason" (p. 31).

When speaking about 1 Peter 1:8: "From Peter's incredible utterance, we may draw the conclusion that true spirituality or true religion consists in great measure in holy affections. Or again, 'when religion appeared in them most in its genuine excellency and native beauty, and was found to praise, and honor, and glory, [Peter] singles out the religious affections of love and joy, that were then in exercise in them. These are the exercises of religion he takes notice of, wherein their religion did thus appear true and pure and in its proper glory" (p. 40-41).

I would highly recommend this book, and invite you to return for future reviews.
* This review taken from the Resurgence Blog (see my profile).

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Important Subject from an Interesting Man and Time.

This was an excellent book. As you know, it is an interpretation of Jonathan Edward's book "Religious Affections" - written around 1750. It is deals with what Christian Conversion is and how we can know that others and ourselves have been genuinely converted. The author Sam Storms is good to give the historical and theological context of this book. In so doing, he greatly increases the significance and meaning to what Jonathan Edward's wrote. Without this background, this book would have lost much of its meaning.

I note 5 background events: 1) Jonathan Edwards was in the middle of 2 or 3 large Revivals or Awakenings in America, there were differing views on their genuineness and what was really happening, 2) religion by the established church at the time was often cold and purely intellectual, 3) Jonathan Edward's had an argument with his parents concerning the nature of conversion that lasted 18 months, 4) there was a particular preacher that vehemently opposed Jonathan Edward's teachings on conversion, and 5) he left his church because he wanted to question the genuineness of his parishioners before they partook of communion.

Jonathan Edwards made 2 lists of Signs - one being a list of Indefinite Signs and the one a list of Definite Signs. The Indefinite list was a list of signs that could be true of both believers and non-believers. The Indefinite Signs were real; but since they could be true of non-believers as well, they could not be used to show that a person was truly converted. Below is my summary of the 2 lists. I made this list to help me summarize what Jonathan Edwards was saying and hopefully I can actually use this in a Sunday school class. My summary could certainly be improved upon.

1. 12 Indefinite Signs of Conversion
a. Intensity of Heart not a sign of Affections
b. Physical Activity not a sign of Affections
c. Much Talk not a sign of Affections
d. The way you came to have Affections not a sign of Affections
e. Scriptural Text comes to mind not a sign of Affections
f. Displays of Love not a sign of Affections
g. Much Activity not a sign of Affections
h. Order of experiences not a sign of Affections
i. Fervency of Worship not a sign of Affections
j. Vocal Praise of God not a sign of Affections
k. Profound Assurance not a sign of Affections
l. Attractiveness of Life Style not a sign of Affections

2. 12 Definite Signs of Conversion
a. Spirit-Led Affections
b. God-Focused Affections
c. God's-Holiness Affections
d. Spirit-Enlightened Affections
e. Spirit-Assured Affections
f. Godly-Brokenhearted Affections
g. Spirit-Transformed Affections
h. Christ-Like Affections
i. God-Sensitive Affections
j. God-Balanced Affections
k. God-Craving Affections
l. Godly-Fruit-Bearing Affections

The author has about 40 pages showing how Edward's described his own conversion. Jonathan Edwards was truly a unique individual. The book concludes with a chronological history of Edward's life. It is very interesting.

While I find this book to be very good, I am not sure that everyone who buys it will actually read it. The subject matter - while excellent is very focused and some people will not be able to finish it. While I was reading this book, I kept wondering, where can I ever use this material? I want to be able share this in a SS lesson. That is why I summarized the 2 lists (see above). I want to be able to summarize what I read so that I can share with others at church.

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12 'Signs' Of The Authentic Holy Spirit

No one has sought to make Jonathan Edward's work (Religious Affections) accessible to the lay-man to date. I love reading his work, but my only disillusion is that we distinctly delineate between the Great Awakening as a true move of God, and the Charismatic, 3rd Wave, Super-Apostles creations of man.

Defending Reformed worship from claims that is it a denial of emotions, Edwards reflected on how 'religious affections' are given a prominent place in biblical Reformed worship.

"joy inexpressible" 1 Peter 1:8
'This joy is of a vastly more pure, sublime and heavenly nature...being
something supernatural, and truly divine...their minds were filled and their natures..perfected. It was prelibation of the joy of heaven that raised their minds to a degree of heavenly blessedness.' JE pg 40

'He who has no religious affection, is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart.' JE pg 56

On the very religious emotion of zeal:
'False zeal is against the sin of others, while men have no zeal against their own sins. But he that has true zeal exercises it chiefly against his own sins.' JE pg 133

'True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.' JE

'By this definition of affections Jonathan Edwards successfully shows how true emotions are an essential part of true religion without religion become emotionalism.' W Robert Godfrey, Give Praise To God, pg 363

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Finally - something by Edwards that I can understand!

"Signs of The Spirit - an interepretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religous Affections" by Sam Storms is basically a paraphrase of Jonathan Edwards' "Religous Affections." A very good one.

Counting this book - this will be the third time in a year that I've read this work by Edwards in one version or another. I'm not sure why I keep being drawn back to this particular work. This time around is primarily because I am becoming a big fan of Sam Storms and this is his latest book - but there is still something about it that is incredibly realistic when approaching the sincerity of one's faith. Like Edwards I struggle with my own sincerity and genuiness - constantly fighting against personal hypocracy and self-centeredness. When I measure my faith and personal walk with God by using this stuff - I see how far off from Him I am - and am greatly humbled by it. This is necessary for a true understanding of how sin needs to be dealt with - through Christ.

A lot of people aren't in favor of paraphrasing Edwards' works into modern day language - but I for one am all for it. Sam Storm does a great job of breaking this book down so that I could completely understand it. Before reading this book - I could only understand about 50% of the origonal.

Edwards lays out about 12 "signs" that a person can use to determine the sincerity of his own faith - and I think it is important to differentiate between one's OWN vice someone else's. I just don't think its a productive thing to do to go around trying to judge the sincerity of a brother's faith. I also don't think that is the intent of Edwards either. There are also some signs Edwards lists that MAY be fruits of a sincere faith but not necessarily. Its a very powerful book to read and without the hard edge of Shepard's "Parable of The Ten Virgins."

Storms also includes all of Edwards' "Personal Narrative" in the second section of the book. This part of Edwards' writings were left in their original with Storms commenting extensively on them. Its a great addition to the work because when you read Edwards' narrative you really get the sense that he applied the principals in the "Religous Affections" to his own life.

One thing missing from the book is the constant and continuous references to Thomas Shepard's "Parable of The Ten Virgins" which you will see in the original text outright. I'm not sure why Storms left this out - probably because it wasn't necessary to the point - but I think it really is a great idea to read that book to see how it incredibly influenced Edwards.

I really enjoyed this book - and hope that folks like Storms will step up to the plate and put some more writings of Edwards and others like him into a modern day readable format for average joe's like me.

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Fair interpretation of Edwards along with helpful guided tour of his "Personal Narrative"

After realizing that (despite his oft and repeated recommendations that people read Edwards for themselves) most people simply would not persevere through Edwards' cumbersome and hefty treatise on the Religious Affections, Sam Storms decided to give a distilled version (my words, not his) of Edwards for modern readers. He has retained Edwards' basic outline and much of Edwards' actual wording. But he has trimmed away what seemed to him superfluous to Edwards' main argument.

I am currently reading Religious Affections for the third time and actually purchased Storms' book because I was hoping for a more sermonic distillation of Edwards. That is not what Storms has written. But I still finished his book with profit and expect to use it in the future. The great strength of Storms' "interpretation" of Edwards is its brevity - 152 pages vs. over 350 in the Yale edition! The first time I read Religious Affections it took me four or five months to get all the way through. Storms' book can easily be read in several sittings.

The downside is that the cumulative weight of Edwards' argument is somewhat lost with the editing. For example, Storms summarizes much of Edwards' actual exposition of biblical passages and just includes the verses in brackets, whereas Edwards actually quotes the verses. I find these parts some of the richest portions of Edwards' original. I like reading Edwards himself because I value the effect his more lengthy explanation and argumentation has on my heart.

But there is a second benefit to Storms' book - and this is really the reason I want to commend it. The last third of Storms' book (p. 153-213) contains Edwards' Personal Narrative, with Storms' commentary interspersed throughout. The Personal Narrative is Edwards' own recounting of his conversion experience and early spiritual growth. It is simply breathtaking! And Storms' commentary on it is exceptionally edifying. I read all of this on a Saturday evening and it really helped sensitize my soul to the Lord and prepare my heart for worship the next day.

So, if are stirred up by those occasional quotes from Edwards that you hear from your pastor, and you want to read him for yourself but don't think you can tackle 350+ pages of unedited Puritan prose, get Storms! Even if you don't read all of the Religious Affections section (though I hope you will!), you will benefit so much from reading the Personal Narrative section.

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