Psychology of emotions as theology: The meaning and control of sin in early modern English religion

The Protestant divines of early modern England believed the law of religion to be "spiritual." This idea meant that religious law applied not only to physical behavior but also to thoughts and emotions. The "external," physical discipline of early modern English religion has been extensively studied, but the "inner" discipline required by the spiritual law has not received much attention from historians. This study begins to rectify that neglect by using normative evidence to investigate the "spiritual" sins and virtues of English practical religion. Part I of the study concentrates on sins discussing first the ideas which English religion held about the psychological functioning of emotions and then the sinful passions of pride and envy, as well as the neutral passions of anger and love. The discussion emphasizes the influence of these passions on "rational" thinking and "natural" feelings. The last chapter of part I describes the destructive effects English divines believed the sinful passions to have on the individual and the society. Part II of the study describes how practical religion controlled passions by conversion and meditation. Special emphasis is given to two points: (1) the detection of one's "invisible" passions by introspective observation of thoughts, daydreams, and instinctive emotional reactions; and, (2) the ability of conversion to change man's instinctive emotional reactions and make religion and its norms feel "naturally" pleasant. In modern terminology, this change means that the converted internalized the norms of religion. The discussion of the meditation methods used in England includes an investigation of the origins of English meditation. These origins were found in medieval mystical theology, and the chapter provides a brief sketch of one possible route through which conversion and meditation could have spread from medieval monasteries to common use in seventeenth-century England. This section also notes that the "law is spiritual" idea and its associated emphasis on controlling thoughts and emotions may have been a distinguishing feature of all reformed religion. The final chapters discuss hypocrisy, which was the method used to discover a person's true emotions, and the extent to which the internalized religion spread among English population.