Some Notes Concerning Affections and the Sublime in the Work of Jonathan Edward

Some Notes Concerning Affections and the Sublime in the Work of Jonathan Edward

Jonathan Edwards’s attention to the separation of the body from the soul combined with his efforts to account for the spirit of revivalism during the “Great Awakening” implicates the sublime as both a rhetorical tool and psychological experience that, in either case, foregrounds the relationship between an individual’s perception of the self and his or her relationship to a community. Comparing Edwards’s personal writing to his public writing , an exploration of the phenomenon of conversion is clearly developed. Sublime experiences represent potential moments for conversion to Christianity because such events are moments that define the self in absence from the community. Edwards himself insisted that conversion testimony be required for admittance to the Puritan community. Rarely argued in Edwards scholarship, his focus upon philosophy and theology may be an attempt to both scientifically explain the moment of possible conversion and theologically typify the conversion experience. Whereas he wasn’t seeking to standardize conversion, he was attempting to normalize it, to make it practical. In this way, Edwards is a pioneer in American pragmatics.

The moment of conversion, whether or not it is genuine, is a monumental moment because it builds community by uniting an individual’s self-concerned state of being with the Puritan community’s dependence upon the conversion narrative. Each conversion strengthens the community; however, the community has no control over the conversion experience. Hence, the desire to justify, to authenticate, each conversion. For, unless shared through narrative, sublime moments are strictly private affairs. Wh...

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