Signs of the Spirit

This book is an interpretation by Sam Storms of Jonathan Edwards's Religious Affections - part paraphrase, part summary, part commentary, in view of making the old Puritan's immensely dense & hard-to-read ideas in their original text more accessible to the modern layperson. Edwards easily ranks among the most important American theologians in history but he is notoriously difficult, obtuse even, in his writing style, so a book like this that attempts to communicate his arguments in shorter clearer sentences is of much value. The Religious Affections as a text is concerned with establishing biblically and doctrinally sound principles by which we may discern whether the spiritual experiences and outputs of a person's life can be known to be genuinely imparted by the Holy Spirit and thus attest to the authenticity of that person's faith.

   Storms (or perhaps Edwards, I have no means of telling what the original text's chapter division scheme is like) opens with a brief introduction on the nature of true spirituality - that is, a life of faith characterised by love for and joy in Jesus Christ - and that such a life will manifest spiritual affections, experiences of mind & heart that lift one into cognizant fellowship with the divine. He then establishes the biblical foundations for this concept, and briefly discusses its utility in prayer, praise & preaching. Then we get to the list of twenty-four affections at the core of the book: the first twelve are "signs of nothing", i.e. spiritual or psychological or emotional experiences that, however much they may feel or appear to be religious at face value, are actually inconclusive in determining whether they are genuine signs of saving faith; the subsequent twelve however are, according to Edwards, sure signifiers that the person experiencing the affection is numbered among God's children. Thus:

1. Affections that are truly spiritual and gracious arise from influences and operations on the heart that are supernatural and divine.
2. The first objective ground of gracious affections is the transcendently excellent and amiable nature of divine things as they are in themselves, and not in any conceived relation to self-interest.
3. Those affections that are truly holy are primarily founded on the loveliness of the moral excellence of divine things.
4. Gracious affections arise from the mind being enlightened rightly and spiritually to understand or apprehend divine things.
5. Truly gracious affections are attended with a reasonable and spiritual conviction of the judgement, reality and certainty of divine things.
6. Gracious affections are attended with evangelical humiliation [that is, authentic humility in Christ's service].
7. Gracious affections are distinguished from those that are false in that they are accompanied by a change of nature.
8. True religious affections reflect the character of Christ; they produce and promote the same love, humility, forgiveness & mercy that we see in him.
9. Authentic affections soften the heart and produce a tenderness of spirit and sensitivity toward sin.
10. Godly & gracious affections differ from those that are false in their beautiful symmetry and proportion.
11. When genuine gracious affections are experienced in high degree, it serves to intensify one's longing for more.
12. Gracious affections always bear the fruit of holiness of life.

   I haven't read nor have any plan to read Edwards's original work, so I can't say to what degree the unpacking of each of these does justice to the spiritual depth or intellectual integrity of the arguments presented in simplified summary, but Storms certainly doesn't come across as being less thorough than he should be.

   Alongside the interpretation of the Religious Affections, this book includes a second part - again part paraphrase, part summary, part commentary (and part lengthy direct quote) of another work by Edwards, his testimony as originally told in a short autobiographical text called the Personal Narrative; I found this part of the book extremely edifying and challenging as a subjective story of coming into and growing in relationship with God - it deals in considerable depth the religious affections of Edwards himself (chiefly sorrow at the vileness of his own sin & sweet joy at the beauty of God's holiness) as he walked his spiritual path, and thus complements the main bulk of this book perfectly in a less abstract, more applicable manner.

   Ultimately though I don't think this is a book I would recommend much. Its subject matter is theologically, spiritually and psychologically interesting, but as things stand we as humans can never attain a God's-eye-view of the true heart of another, and with experiences and expressions of affection in word and deed being often distorted by the muddy mixture of sin and liberation from it in the hearts of even true believers, it is impossible for us as creatures to perfectly discern the spiritual health of anyone, including ourselves. Such judgement is ineffable, God's alone, and only He knows the full roster of his elect. So though Edwards's system for ascertaining whether one's faith is authentic is coherent and hard to find much to argue with in terms of its orthodox grounding, it isn't particularly practical for either individual or corporate spiritual instruction. "You shall know them by their fruits," says Jesus, but again sinners may by common grace produce good fruit and the redeemed may still harbour fleshly inclinations, so any hope of us being able to properly categorise people as elected for salvation or not evaporates on contact with a creation that still groans in its wait for renewal.