Abstract
The role of emotions and religious experience is a prominent theme in the theology of Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). His concept of ‘the sense of the heart’ involves a synthesis of emotion, perception, intellect and dispositions for moral action. Due to the vague distinctions and relations between these components, an apparently internal tension has been the focus of several interpretations. In this paper I argue that we ought to reexamine Edwards’s position through contemporary emotion theory. By doing this, much of the internal tension of the sense of the heart can be decreased. The theory used in this paper is Jesse Prinz’s modern version of the James-Lange theory, in which emotions are embodied appraisals. Emotions are perceptive in a double way: as feelings of bodily changes and trackers of relations between an organism and an organism-significant environment. There is no necessary conflict between value-content, bodily feelings, cognitions and action-enablers in the emotional process. In the light of this, it is reasonable to conceptualize the sense of the heart as a primarily emotional faculty. Heart, head and body need not exclude each other.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The first publication of this ‘Miscellany’ is found in Perry Miller’s article ‘Jonathan Edwards on the Sense of the Heart’. References here are to the publishing of the Miscellanies 501–832 by Yale University Press and marked with the number of the miscellany.
- 2.
The relation between the sense of the unconverted and the sense of the regenerated has been discussed by Michael McClymond in ‘Spiritual Perception in Jonathan Edwards’ (McClymond 1997). If the bridge between the two is held as short, then it is proper to talk about a continuation. This is basically Miller’s position. If it is long or even incommensurable, it is a discontinuation. McClymond argues for a view that integrates both perspectives (McClymond 1997: 208–214).
- 3.
To be precise, the term will is used to denote the action-aspect of man’s affections, while the term heart refers to its position in the mind (Edwards 1959: 96–97).
- 4.
There have been some suggestions that James did not hold feelings to be identical with emotions, but this view has been criticized, I believe for good reasons (Prinz 2004: 5, n. 2).
- 5.
For the analogy to be precise, the added crayon needs to be that of a base color. This actually mirrors the mystical aspect of Edwards’s account: something wholly new can be added to the faculty. I do not believe that a conceptualization of this kind can avoid reduction of Edwards on this specific point.
- 6.
Just as Edwards’s conversion is potentially corruptible by sin, emotional instinct may be stored. An extreme example would be emotional action tendencies induced by Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
- 7.
- 8.
Bibliography
Adams, J. C., & Yarbrough, S. R. (1993). Delightful conviction: Jonathan Edwards and the Rhetoric of Conversion. Westport: Greenwood.
Choi, K. J. (2010). The role of perception in Jonathan Edwards’s moral thought. Journal of Religious Ethics, 38(2), 269–296.
Coakley, S. (Ed.). (2012). Faith, rationality, and the passions. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Dretske, F. (1988). Explaining behavior: Reasons in a world of causes. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Edwards, J. (1959). A treatise concerning religious affections. In J. E. Smith (Ed.), The works of Jonathan Edwards, volume 2: Religious affections. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Edwards, J. (1989). The nature of true virtue. In P. Ramsey (Ed.), The works of Jonathan Edwards, volume 8: Ethical writings. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Edwards, J. (1999). A divine and supernatural light. In W. H. Kimnach, K. P. Minkema, & D. A. Sweeney (Eds.), The sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A reader. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Edwards, J. (2000). Miscellany 628 and Miscellany 782. In A. Chamberlain (Ed.), The works of Jonathan Edwards, volume 18: The ‘Miscellanies’ (pp. 501–832). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hoopes, J. (1983). Jonathan Edwards’s religious psychology. Journal of American History, 69, 849–865.
Hvorecký, J. (2010). Embodied appraisals and non-emotional states. Human Affairs, 20(3), 215–223.
James, W. (1884). What is an emotion? Mind, 9, 188–205.
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology (Vol. 2). New York: Dover.
James, S. (1997). Passion and action: The emotions in seventeenth-century philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lange, C. G. (1885). Om Sindsbevaegelser. Copenhagen: Jacob Lunds.
Lazarus, R. (1991a). Emotion and adaptation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lazarus, R. (1991b). Cognition and motivation in emotion. American Psychologist, 46(4), 352–367.
Lazarus, R. (2003). On emotions as judgments. In R. Lazarus (Ed.), Not passion’s slave: Emotions and choice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Losonsky, M. (2001). Enlightenment and action from Descartes to Kant: Passionate thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McClymond, M. J. (1997). Spiritual perception in Jonathan Edwards. Journal of Religion, 77(2), 195–216.
McClymond, M. J., & McDermott, G. R. (2012). The theology of Jonathan Edwards. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miller, P. (1948). Jonathan Edwards on the sense of the heart. The Harvard Theological Review, 41(2), 123–145.
Plantinga, A. (2000). Warranted Christian belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prinz, J. (2003). Emotion, psychosemantics, and embodied appraisals. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 52, 69–86.
Prinz, J. (2004). Gut reactions: A perceptual theory of emotion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prinz, J. (2005). Are emotions feelings? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12(8–12), 9–25.
Wainwright, W. (1995). Reason and the heart. New York: Cornell University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sörhuus, M. (2016). Spiritual Knowledge as Embodied Appraisals: A Reading of Jonathan Edwards from an Emotion Theory Point of View. In: Evers, D., Fuller, M., Runehov, A., Sæther, KW. (eds) Issues in Science and Theology: Do Emotions Shape the World?. Issues in Science and Religion: Publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26769-2_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26769-2_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-26767-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26769-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)