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October 18, 2005
From Affection to Action
Filed under: God, Faith & Spirituality
The great thinker and theologian, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), in his book Religious Affections, comments:
When we look at the world, we see that people are exceedingly busy. It is their affections that keep them busy. If we were to take away their affections, the world would me motionless and dead; there would be no such thing as activity. It is the affection we call covetousness that moves a person to seek worldly profits; it is the affection we call ambition that moves a person to pursue worldly glory; it is the affection we call lust that moves a person to pursue sensual delights. Just as the worldly affections are the spring of worldly actions, so the religious affections are the spring of religions actions.
Richard Foster, in his book Devotional Classics, responds:
We today desperately need this lesson because a modern myth abounds that true objectivity must be passionless. As a result, we analyze and dissect the spiritual life without the slightest personal involvement or commitment and think we understand it. But the spiritual life cannot be understood in this detached way. We understand by commitment. And we enter into commitment and sustain commitment by what Edwards rightly calls "holy affections."
I want to be a person who does less analyzing and instead have more attachment to the affections Edwards talks about. I want my holy affections to breath life into holy actions.