Sam Storms’ new book, Signs of the Spirit, includes this paragraph in the preface:
I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been asked for recommended reading and have suggested Edwards (specifically the Religious Affectations), only to be greeted with a contorted face or an embarrassed evasion that goes something like this: “Well, I tried reading Edwards. I really wanted to read the Affections, but after about fifteen or twenty pages into it, I just quit. For whatever reason, I couldn’t follow him. His style was aggravating and, well, to be honest, I just couldn’t understand what he was saying.”
I was certainly in that group. I knew that reading Jonathan Edwards would be “good for me” but I simply couldn’t bring myself to take my medicine. As Storms points out, “Edwards penchant for torturously complex sentence structure, together with the abundance of theological “bunny trails” that, at least initially, don’t seem to contribute to the point he is making, have tested and all too often triumphed over the determination of even the most avid and intellectual of Christians.”
Storms didn’t write Signs of the Spirit to replace Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections. He wrote it in order to make Edwards’ writing more accessible. As a teenager, I had a hard time reading The Taming of the Shrew. After I watched the Elizabeth Taylor movie, saw the action and heard the inflections in their speech, it all made a great deal more sense, and I was able to read the play with no difficulty. Signs of the Spirit does something similar for Religious Affections.
Although Storms does “put the cookies on the lower shelf” with this book, it is by no means a fast and superficial read. Each sign of “authentic affections” is presented in comprehensible English, but the concepts themselves are not “dumbed down” in any way. This book is a slow, thoughtful, prayerful read. It provokes self-examination and calls us to a higher standard.
The second part of Signs of the Spirit examines Edwards’ Personal Narrative. It describes Edwards’ own experiences, his enjoyment of God, and his frustration with the things that distracted him from God – problems we all experience today. For those who are not familiar with Jonathan Edwards, the Appendix contains a chronology of his life, ministry and writings that is extremely interesting. That chronology, together with the interpretation of Religious Affections and the commentary on his personal narrative provokes readers to learn more about a man described “by common consensus one of the most godly men who ever lived.” This book is a wonderful introduction to Jonathan Edwards, and I highly recommend it.
Author: Sam Storms
Publisher: Crossway
Title:Signs of the Spirit -An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 5 of 5
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