To this day Edwards's Treatise Concerning Religious Affections has, for profound insight into the nature of religious experience, only one rival. That is William James's Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Indeed, at several junctures, James, the Harvard philosopher and psychologist, appeals to the insights of the colonial Northampton pastor to defend his thesis that the validity of religious experience is measured by its fruits.

James approvingly cites what he calls Edwards's "empiricist criterion" in the Affections.

"By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots," writes James. "The roots of a man's virtue are inaccessible to us. No appearances whatever are infallible proofs of grace. Our practice is the only sure evidence, even to ourselves, that we are genuinely Christians." He agreed with Edwards that extreme physical and emotional expressions have little to do with genuine religious experience. These may make the religious experience memorable, but they "have no essential ...

FREE E-Newsletter Sign up for the ChristianHistory.net e-mail newsletter. Discover more about your Christian heritage with this weekly e-newsletter that features key people, topics, and events from the history of Christianity.      RSS Feed   RSS Help