American spaces of conversion : the conductive imaginaries of Edwards, Emerson, and James

This study examines how the concept of conversion and the legacy of the doctrine of preparation, as articulated in Puritan Reformed theology and transplanted to the Massachusetts Bay colony, remained a vital cultural force shaping developments in American literature, theology, and in philosophy in the form of pragmatism. Abstract: This study examines how the concept of conversion and specifically the legacy of the doctrine of preparation, as articulated in Puritan Reformed theology and transplanted to the Massachusetts Bay colony, remained a vital cultural force shaping developments in American literature, theology, and, ultimately, in philosophy in the form of pragmatism. Read more... This study examines how the concept of conversion and specifically the legacy of the doctrine of preparation, as articulated in Puritan Reformed theology and transplanted to the Massachusetts Bay colony, remained a vital cultural force shaping developments in American literature and philosophy. It begins by discussing the testimonies of conversion collected by the Puritan minister Thomas Shepard, which reveal an active pursuit of belief by prospective church members occurring at the intersection of experience, perception, doctrine, affections, and intellect. This pursuit of belief, codified in the morphology of conversion, and originally undertaken by the Puritans as a way to conceptualize redemption in a fallen state, established the epistemological contours for what Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William James would theorize as a conductive imaginary—consciousness imagined as a space organized or that self-organizes around the dynamics and tensions between abstract truth and concrete realities, certainty and uncertainty, and perception and objects perceived. Each writer offers a picture of consciousness as both a receptive and active force responsible for translating the effects of experience and generating original relations with self, community, and God. This study demonstrates that each writer “ministered” to their audiences by articulating a method or habit of mind in order to foster an individual’s continual efforts at regeneration, conceived by all the subjects of this study as a matter of converting semantics, that is, a dedicated willingness to seeking out personal and cultural renewal through the continual process of attaching new meaning and value to ordinary contexts The religious precepts of the Puritans continued to affect intellectual life in the U.S. long after the immigrants arrived at Massachusetts Bay, circulating through New England culture well into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using three emblematic figures--Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William James--American Spaces of Conversion examines how the Puritan legacy, especially the concept of conversion, shaped developments in American literature, theology, and pragmatist philosophy. Knutson grounds her study with the testimonies collected by the Puritan minister Thomas Shepard, which reveal an active pursuit of belief occurring at the intersection of perception, intellection, affection, and doctrine. This pursuit of belief, codified in the morphology of conversion, was originally undertaken by the Puritans as a way to conceptualize redemption in a fallen state. It established the epistemological contours for what Edwards, Emerson, and James would theorize as a conductive imaginary-consciousness, a state both receptive and active, as a force responsible for translating the effects of experience and generating original relations with self, community, and God. With an interdisciplinary approach that combines religion, literature, and philosophy, Knutson demonstrates how the triad of writers discussed here'ministered'to their audiences, encouraging the attachment of new meaning to ordinary contexts in a continual effort toward regeneration. Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Abbreviations 10 Introduction 14 1. A Believing Attitude 28 2. “Something That Is Seen, That Is Wonderful”: Jonathan Edwards and the Feeling of Conviction 67 3. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the “Universal Impulse to Believe” 106 4. William James’s Uncertain Universe Theory as Theology in The Varieties of Religious Experience 147 Notes 174 Index 192 A 192 B 192 C 192 D 194 E 194 F 196 G 196 H 196 I 197 J 197 K 197 L 197 M 197 N 198 O 198 P 198 R 199 S 199 T 200 U 201 V 201 W 201 Y 201