Light and Heat

After more than two years of blogging under the title solus Christus, I have decided to make a change. I originally chose the name solus Christus to communicate my belief that all theological reflection should be Christ-centered. I still believe that. But after reflecting on the last couple years it has become apparent to me that the main theme of this blog is a bit more specific (though certainly not an improvement over Christ!). My reflections typically demonstrate the influence of the Confessional Reformed tradition of which I am a part.

Following this line of thought, I chose the name Light and Heat for two reasons:

1. It is a good metaphor for the Reformed understanding of true religion. True religion is a confessional piety. Right understanding logically precedes and fuels right affections.
   
2. I found the metaphor in a work by one of my favorite Reformed theologians, Jonathan Edwards, although I've recently found myself out of alignment with his emphasis on extraordinary individual religious experience and the importance of religious experience in general (Knowing what I know now, I would have aligned with the Old Side during the 18th century awakenings).

Edwards writes:

For although to true religion there must indeed be something else besides affection; yet true religion consists so much in the affections, that there can be no true religion without them. He who has no religious affection, is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. As on the one hand, there must be light in the understanding, as well as an affected fervent heart; where there is heat without light, there can be nothing divine or heavenly in that heart; so on the other hand, where there is a kind of light without heat, a head stored with notions and speculations, with a cold and unaffected heart, there can be nothing divine in that light, that knowledge is no true spiritual knowledge of divine things. If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart (Religious Affections, part 1, emphasis added).