Graham Beynon

Although a bit dry in spots, this books gives an excellent overview of the life of Isaac Watts, with special attention paid to various aspects of his thought -- in addition, of course, to his hymns. (In fact, I thought the part of the book devoted to Watts's hymns could have been expanded; perhaps the author believes that this part of his work is too well-known to require extended comment.) The author shows a masterful use of Watts's own writings to underscore the points he makes. Especially interesting to me were the portions of the book devoted to how Watts sought to walk a fine line between the cerebral 'Enlightenment' faith so characteristic of his time and the overly-passionate 'enthusiastic' religion that was coming to the fore. Also touched upon were Watts's affinity with Jonathan Edwards and his more skeptical approach toward George Whitefield and the Wesleys. -- Benyon does not -quite- make his subject come to life, as it were, but the book is enjoyable for what it is and what it seeks to accomplish.… (plus d'informations)

Reading experience: Well written; easy to follow (you know where the writer is at). Use of examples is helpful (but I did not read all of them).

General thought on the book: Well-balanced, clear statements but never overgeneralized. Written for advancing understanding and helping people to act better (not so strong on the affective component, although examples help with that).

Personal takeaways:
(1) Personal sanctification is heart work, there it includes our emotions as well.
(2) Let all knowledge lead to right emotions (about the knowledge and about God).
(3) Define your own actions according to knowledge and emotions that induce the actions: “The question isn’t how much I do, but whether my life flows from right knowledge about God and right feelings towards him.” (p. 83)
 
 
 
MY SUMMARY / OUTLINE:

PART 1. Understanding emotions (p. 15–96)

Chapter 1. Thinking feeling, and acting belong together – worship God with all your being.
· Emotions: pure emotions (impulsive); recognizable feelings (mood); attitudes (character traits).

Chapter 2. “What we want is appropriate and proportional emotions – right emotions to the right extent” (p. 58).
· Emotions in Jesus’ life: compassion, anger, sadness, love, frustration, joy, distress; and more.
· We are aiming to live like Jesus. This means: We are aiming at a fully functioning emotional life – a life in colors. Like Jesus, both steady _and_ emotional living.
· This means: We are not aimong at good feelings (or to feel certain things), but to feel appropriate. (p.42)
· “Jesus valued things to exactly the right degree. As a result, he always responded in the right way” (p. 43).

Summary in picture: Graph with x-axis Event, y-axis Emotion; bisectrix as an ideal line of proportions.

Chapter 3. “Feelings flow ultimately from what we love, and what we hate” (p. 53).
· The heart is the control center of our life.
· Feelings come from an event and our heart values.
· “What makes emotions wrong is when they flow from wrong heart values” (p. 58).
· Accept: We are sinners, our hearts are rotten, our emotions are wrong. — Hope: God is in the business of renewing our hearts. Making us more like Christ (cf. Chapter 2) is first and foremost heart-work.
· Paul as an example (Phil. 1:4–5.12.18))
· “Rather than emotions being wild and unpredictable, there is actually a reason for them. It’s not always an obvious reason – and it can sometimes be hard to work it out – but it is a reason that flows from my heart.” (p. 58)
· There are contributing factors determining how my heart values result in feelings: Personality; Background and upbringing; Culture; Memories and personal history; Tiredness, health, and hormones (and other physical aspects). They have a magnifying or minimizing effect on what I feel [moderator variables, if you will].

Summary in picture:
· Event × Heart value = Feeling
· Event × Heart value ------|-----> Feeling
                                                          |
                                                contributing
                                                   factors

Chapter 4. How to get emotional?
· Do nothing: emotions are natural responses (to knowing things – like God and his truth). So get to know God and his truth.
· Recalibrate your heart to value the right things: emotions are commanded.
      - We are able to direct our emotions (Lk. 10:20).
      - Commands to feel have reasons attached, so we can bombard our hearts with them to feel right things.
      - Emotions are not simply happening to us, we can influence them.
· Pray, because the growth is alone by the Spirit’s work in us. We are dependent. We can’t chance our hearts on our own. Examples of biblical prayers: Col. 1:11–12; Rom. 15:13; 1Thess. 3:12.
· Summary of the chapter is found at the end of the chapter (p. 75+76).

Chapter 5. The place of emotions in relation to the whole person.
· Ps 97 as an example of the integration of thinking, feeling and acting.
· Feelings are a part of the response to God’s truth. But neither acting nor feeling do tell us, what is true (e.g. how God feels about us) – but only God’s word.
=The place of the mind=
   · “The question isn’t whether I feel very much; the question is whether I feel rightly. And to feel rightly I must have feelings that flow from truth.” (p. 81)
   · “The questions isn’t whether I know lots; the question is how I respond to what I know. Right knowledge must flow into right feeling and living.” (p. 81)
   · Thinking about God leads to warm hearts, and warm hearts towards God lead to more thinking about God (cf. Goodwin; p. 82).
=The place of the will=
   · “The question isn’t how much I do, but whether my life flows from right knowledge about God and right feelings towards him.” (p. 83)
   · “Back in the psalm [97] it was ‘those who love the Lord’ who lived differently. And they loved the Lord because of the truth about him.” (p. 83)
   · “there will be many times when we don’t feel like doing the right thing [believing in God’s word; living for God]. I’m not saying that we should be happy with that. But I am saying that there will be times when tat is the case in our lives” (p. 84) and we need to persevere with self-control.
   · Job and David as examples for perseverance.
   · We can chose what we think about in difficult circumstances: difficulties, or God. The choice will influence our emotions.
=Wrong use of emotion=
· as source of right or wrong.
· as an excuse
· too much / too little about the things
· looking for emotional experiences. QUOTE (J. Edwards): ‘they say to themselves: “‘What a good experience is this! What a great discovery is this! What wonderful things have I met with!’ And so they put their experiences in the place of Christ, and his beauty and fullness; and instead of rejoicing in Christ Jesus, they rejoice in their admirable experiences.”’ (p. 91)
· feeling without action
· good feelings about good things turn into bad feelings (like pride because of knowing a doctrine instead of joy over the doctrine).
 
 
PART 2. emotions in practice (p. 97–176)
 
Chapter 6. How to use the bible to foster right emotions? Learn it’s truths; meditate on it; read it for emotions; pray it.
· To be taught in God’s word is a central part to grow in godly feelings, because right feeling flows from right thinking.
· Meditation is one way to get truth from head to heart: speaking to yourself / muttering; turning something over in your mind / looking closely; comparing something to something. Meditation isn’t teaching, it’s chewing something we already know. (We meditate on things we love naturally; e.g. we watch again the greatest goals from the world cup etc.)
   · Ps 103 as proactive meditation: recalling reasons to praise God.
   · Ps 77 as reactive meditation: choosing a truth of God to counter our feelings.
   · Ps 77 as example that meditating does not always have to change our feelings directly. Bub biblical examples show that it is right to do it, whatever the outcome.
· The bible isn’t bare truths; it’s literature and thus written to make us feel something (and then do something). Ask all three – for they are connected – when you read the bible: What should I know?, What should I feel?, What should I do?
· Using biblical texts as guides for our prayers stirs up right emotions (and helps to pray for right emotions, because we would often lose track on that on our own).

Chapter 7. Emotions and singing (in church).
· God’s people are to sing.
· What do we do when we sing? We are doing everything we would do in other forms to express our whole relationship with God. - Speaking to God, to others, to ourselfes; - expressing love, stating a commitment, calling on God, confessing sin, … (p. 115f.). So there is no mystery about singing (or about singing’s content).
· Why do we sing?
   (1) Express emotions. Isaac Watts (p. 118): “Let us remember, that the very power of singing was given to human nature chiefly for this purpose, that our warmest affections of soul might break out into natural or divine melody, and that the tongue of the worshipper might express his own heart.”
  (2) Stir up emotions. Jonathan Edwards (p. 118): “… the duty of singing praises to God seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music but only, that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections.”
  So: “We sing both to express and to stir up our emotions. That means that praise is a tool for growing in godly feelings, and a major way in which we express godly feelings.” (p. 118)
· Implications for singing (in church):
   · We shouldn’t be afraid for our feelings to be stirred up by praise.
   · We must see that in praise we are not simply chasing feelings themselves. “What we want to feel is what fits with what we are singing. There is, or should be, a link between the feeling in my heart and the truth in my mind being spoken by my lips.” (p. 119)
   · We want our feelings because of the truth, not the music. Music should be an aid not the source. “John Calvin said that music has ‘the greatest value in kindling our hearts to a true zeal and eagerness to pray’. Absolutely right. But he went on to say, ‘Yet we should be very careful that our ears be not more attentive to the melody that our minds to the spiritual meaning of the words.’” (p. 119)
   · The distinction between what is helpful and what is musical manipulation is complicated. It’s dependent on culture, and – in the end – on each individuum [therefore we need individual worship competence, if you will].
   · How a song or a time of singing affects us, depends on: - our personalities, circumstances, … - our spiritual place (not every one is encouraged by a sermon, some are challenged; so it is with songs).
   · Though singing stirs our emotions, it is not lifting us into God’s presence. It may be that truth matters more to us in singing, and that’s good. But believing the truth, not singing, is connecting us with God.
 
 
Chapter 8. Emotions and the church (as a community).
·… (plus d'informations)

This is a wonderfully clear and concise overview of Watts' ministry, writings, and hymnody. The book shows Beynon's great love of Watt's ministry, while not shying away from being discerningly critical where needed. Some of the focus on Watts' writings on rationalism, the relationship between emotion and faith, hymnody which is based on scripture but is understandable by the layman, making music and liturgy understandable for children, and experiential faith remains relevant today. It is a reminder that we should look to some of the great minds of the past for wisdom as well as those in our present time, as to do otherwise would be to be temporally arrogant. I came away excited by Watts' willingness to emphasise how important a relationship with God is, and his passion to make sure that the gospel was understandable to all, young and old. I couldn't help but feel that Beynon's clarity and simple prose was a gentle reflection of Watts' own style - and that can be no bad thing.… (plus d'informations)