Many experiencing intense religious affections during the Great Awakening traced their experience to “some extrinsic and supernatural power upon their minds.” [1] Supposing the source to be outside themselves and produced by other than natural means, they concluded it must be from God. Others took an opposite view, believing the “manner of the Spirit of […]
The sound and fury of the Great Awakening involved a grand display of lively affections and their affects, including an extraordinary measure of talk about Christ, the Gospel, and divine things. But, as with the great bodily effects and the other phenomena of the Awakening, abundant religious talk appeared to some as more of the
The high and intense affections of the Great Awakening often came with an assortment of bodily effects, including fainting, shaking, sweating, crying, and exhaustion (among others). Some found the displays unsettling and refused to accept any of them as works of God. Others welcomed them all as evidence of God’s work. Here again, Edwards took
The greatest revival in American history burst onto the scene with lively displays of religious affections and their extraordinary effects, leading some to conclude that people subject to them were “delusional.” Others assumed by their energy and impact that the Holy Spirit produced them all. Edwards, however, acknowledged a mixture of good and bad and
Some who rejected the entire Great Awakening as a work of God also denied religious affections as necessary to the Christian life. For them, faith involved reason and the intellect only, not the affections. For Edwards, however, this was a serious error with enormous negative consequences—new life in Christ does not exist where religious affections
