The Religious Affections: A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections - the Works of Jonathan Edwards - Tapa blanda

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was a colonial American Congregational preacher, theologian, and missionary to Native Americans. Edwards "is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian," and one of America's greatest intellectuals. Edwards' theological work is very broad in scope, but he is often associated with his defense of Reformed theology, the metaphysics of theological determinism, and the Puritan heritage. Edwards played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening, and oversaw some of the first fires of revival in 1733-1735 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is considered a classic of early American literature, which he delivered during another wave of revival in 1741, following George Whitefield's tour of the Thirteen Colonies. Edwards is widely known for his many books: The End For Which God Created the World; The Life of David Brainerd, which served to inspire thousands of missionaries throughout the nineteenth century; and Religious Affections, which many Reformed Evangelicals read even today. Edwards died from a smallpox inoculation shortly after beginning the presidency at the College of New Jersey (later to be named Princeton University), and was the grandfather of Aaron Burr.

In Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards (the central figure in New England's first Great Awakening) offers his most detailed description of false and true signs of religious revival, while highlighting the role truly balanced emotions play within the Christian life. Espousing a theology foreign to most postmodern Christians, Religious Affections lays out the cornerstone of Christian thought of the mid-18th century. Impossible to ignore, Religious Affections demands a response. No one can read it and be unchanged. The level of discipleship it asks is shocking to modern readers, but ultimately necessary for our salvation.