American Enlightenment Influence

Kalpana Sapkota
Professor Dr. Bodily
English 2327-73002
17, March, 2017
The influence of writers in the American Enlightenment
The American enlightenment was a philosophical movement that began in the early 1700 and ended in the 1810s. During this period, the American colonies went through the change in thought. American Enlightenment applied scientific reasoning to politics, Science and religion. Society begins to reject the many of the older thought and writer started to write papers with new thoughts. It was a period of intellectual ferment, which led to the American Revolution. Michael Haykin points out that from the time of the Reformation to the early eighteenth century the model for renewal of society and church was largely viewed as
a joint political and ecclesial effort. That era was a new intellectual movement that focused in reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems. Different writer and philosopher approached their goal differently according to their backgrounds and environments. Among the philosopher of that era, Jonathan Edward was one of the most important and original philosophical theologians. He wrote a sermon called divine and supernatural lights, which stresses the fact that a human being must be given this “divine and supernatural light” directly from God. Edward uses different biblical references to indicate that God alone is responsible for this divine knowledge. He continues to reinforce the fact that only through God people can reach true enlightenment, because his truth is hidden from the wise and prudent and focused that God is responsible for everything that is accomplished in life. He is trying to portray God as a deity who leaves no room for arrogance and pride which conveys his understanding of the relationship between beauty and a sense of holiness, an understanding that provided the foundation of his personal religious experience.

God is the author of all knowledge and understanding that is obtained by human learning; he is the author of all moral prudence and of the knowledge and skill that men have in their secular business (Gura &Krupat, 417).
In “Divine and Supernatural light” Edward lays out the case that the spiritual knowledge and illumination needed to understand the divine truth is given by only God. He says this knowledge is imparted directly by God not through natural means that operate by their own power. In this sermon Peter is pronounced blessed. Edwards emphasizes this divinely inspired knowledge by using biblical references, for example Jesus responses to the Peter’s declaration of Jesus Christ’s sanctity as God’s son ( Gura & Krupat , 420). Edward also shows the importance of God in inspiring great knowledge when he says “yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Christ doth more exalt and ennoble the soul, then all the knowledge of these that have the great of speculative understanding in divinity without grace,” The evidence of being blessed is Peter as the only one to whom God Revealed. As it shows how peculiarly favored he was of God above others; “How highly favored art thou, that others that are wise and great men and scribes and rulers and the nation in general, are left in darkness, to follow their misguided apprehensions (Gura & Krupat. 419). Secondly it evidences his blessedness as it intimates that this knowledge is above any that flesh and blood can reveal. Mortal men are capable of imparting the knowledge of human arts and sciences, and skills in temporal affairs and God’s the author of such
knowledge.
The original of the knowledge declared both positively and negatively. Positively, God declared the author of it. Negatively, as it is declared that flesh and blood had not revealed it. God is the author of all knowledge and understanding, which is obtained by human learning and he is the author of all moral prudence (Gura &Krupat, 420). According to Edward, his religious conversion about receiving God’s grace in 1751 after that time he began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas about Christ and the work of redemption and the glorious salvation by him. Edward defines “divine light” as an inner sense of God’s truth and sweetness that human being can only receive directly from God. To show the natural and divine light those natural men may have of their sin and misery is not this spiritual and divine light. Edwards reinforce that when the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. Men in the natural conditions may have convictions of the guilt that lies upon them, and of the anger of God and their danger of divine vengeance. Some sinners have a greater conviction of their guilt and misery than others, is because some have more light or more of an apprehension of truth than others. This conviction may be from the spirit of God; the spirit convinces men of sin. He said this light does not consist in any impression made upon the imagination but an exceeding different thing from it.
He explained that a true sense of the divine and superlative Excellency of the things of religion; a real sense of the Excellency of God and Jesus Christ, and of the work of redemption and works of God revealed in the gospel (Gura & Krupat,422). There is not only a rational belief that God is holy and that holiness is a good thing, but there is a sense of the loveliness of God’s holiness. We can observe that there is difference between having an opinion that God is holly and gracious and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and Grace. He said there is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet and having a sense of its sweetness. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful and having a sense of his beauty. The gospel is as a glass, by which this light is conveyed to us. The mind can’t see the Excellency of any doctrine, unless the doctrine is first in the mind; but seeing of the Excellency of the doctrine may be immediately from the spirit of God through the conveying of the doctrine or preposition itself by the word.
To conclude, we can say that knowledge is that which others are above all sweet and joyful. This light gives a view of those things that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful and capable of delighting the eye of the understanding. This is eventually influences the inclination and changes the nature of the soul. Knowledge will wean from the world and raise the inclination to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God. It confirms the heart to gospel, mortifies its enmity. It draws forth the heart is a sincere love to God, which is the only principle of a true, gracious ad universal obedience and this light reaches the bottom of the heart and changes the nature and eventually disposes the soul to give up itself entirely to Christ.

Works Cited http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=d3308681-ebbf-4ac5-8651-20bbccf487a5%40sessionmgr120&vid=4&hid=121&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=99747304&db=lfh CARR, KEVIN C. "Jonathan Edwards and a Divine and Supernatural Light." Puritan Reformed Journal, vol. 2, no. 2, July 2010, pp. 185-207. EBSCOhost, dcccd.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=120001881&site=ehost-live.
Gura F. Philip, Krupat Arnold. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.8th ed.,A, New York, NY,W.W. Norton &Co., 2012.
http://teachhigh-phi.org/texts-resources/texts/EdwardsDSL.pdf