Required reading
The Great Awakening: A history of the revival of religion in the time of Edwards & Whitefield by Joseph Tracy (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 13.
My summary
Today's chapter comments on the unusual bodily experiences of the revival.
Firstly Tracy commends the work of:
(i) Edwards (who is given more extensive treatment);
(ii) Whitefield;
(iii) Tennent;
(iv) Parsons;
(v) Wheelock and Pomroy;
(vi) the clergy of Boston.
Then Tracy gives:
(i) various accounts of how people reacted bodily to the preaching;
(ii) his thoughts on the reasons behind such reactions;
(iii) the thoughts of pastors at the time, including Edwards, on the matter.
What grabbed me
A highly interesting chapter. Particularly Tracy's critique of the convulsions.
I thought this comment was most pertinent: 'Occasional instances of this kind will occur, wherever religion appeals with sufficient force to the heart. Persons sometimes involuntarily "cry out," fall down, faint, or go into convulsions, on occasions of unexpected joy or grief, as the arrival or death of a friend ; and whenever a religious consideration moves a person susceptible of such influences with equal force, and especially with equal suddenness, the same effect naturally follows. Where they are understood and treated as the result of human or individual weakness, they amount to little more than an inconvenience to the persons afflicted, and to a few immediately around them. But where they are valued and cultivated, another principle comes in, — that of sympathy, or involuntary imitation, and they grow into what may be called, with the strictest propriety, an epidemic disease.'
No doubt people will have distressing reactions to the distressing news of God's judgement.
But such reactions should not be cultivated for their own sake.
Next week's reading
Read Chapter 14.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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