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

201 Pages·2011·0.835 MB·English

by  Knutson, Andrea

American Spaces
of Conversion
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AMERICAN SPACES
OF CONVERSION
The Conductive Imaginaries of
Edwards, Emerson, and James
ANDREA KNUTSON
2011
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Knutson, Andrea.
American spaces of conversion : the conductive imaginaries of Edwards,
Emerson, and James / Andrea Knutson.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-19-537092-8
1. Conversion—Christianity. 2. Puritans—Doctrines.
3. Puritans—Influence. 4. Edwards, Jonathan, 1703–1758.
5. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803–1882.
6. James, William, 1842–1910. I. Title.
BX9323.K582011
248.2'40973—dc22
2010009160
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
∂∂
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1. A Believing Attitude 15
2. “ Something That Is Seen, That Is Wonderful”
Jonathan Edwards and the Feeling of Conviction 54
3. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the “Universal
Impulse to Believe” 93
4. William James’s Uncertain Universe
Theory as Theology in The Varieties
of Religious Experience 1 34
Notes 1 61
Index 179
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Acknowledgments
∂∂
Acknowledging all who have supported me during the writing of this
book seems like a small gesture in relation to the gratitude that I feel.
At The Graduate Center of The City University of New York I had the
good fortune to find an exciting and supportive intellectual community
and to study with remarkable scholars. William Kelly’s questions shaped
the way I envisioned the project. He broadened my perspective by asking
me to think about conversion in relation to figures and events outside the
confines of my chapters. David Reynolds’s feedback helped me clarify my
ideas. He challenged me to find the right word, phrase, or sentence to
capture them and did so with enthusiasm and kindness. My deepest
thanks go to Joan Richardson. Her intellectual curiosity and rigor have
been an inspiration for me throughout. Her course “Doers of the Word”
introduced me to scholarship in American theology, literature, and phi-
losophy, and it was in that seminar that the idea for this book developed
and that my intellectual interests crystallized. It was a conversion in every
sense of the word. The book also received financial support from The
Graduate Center’s English Department. I am grateful for having won a
Morton Cohen Dissertation Year Award, which allowed me to make the
transition from years of research to writing.
At Oakland University I have found dedicated teachers and scholars in
Robert Anderson, Gladys Cardiff, Jeff Chapman, Natalie Cole, Brian
Connery, Kyle Edwards, Annie Gilson, Kevin Grimm, Susan Hawkins,
Niels Herold, Edward Haworth Hoeppner, Jeffrey Insko, Nancy Joseph,
Kevin Laam, Jim McClure, L. Bailey McDaniel, Kathleen Pfeiffer, and
Joshua Yumibe. It’s a privilege and a pleasure to be among colleagues who
are committed to student life and learning and whose thoughtfulness and
supportiveness are the backbone of the department. In particular I’d like
to thank Jeffrey Insko, a valuable reader whose thorough feedback was a
vii
viii acknowledgments
considerate and much appreciated gesture toward this junior colleague.
Kathleen Pfeiffer organized a writing workshop that supported me
through the early stages of revisions. Gladys Cardiff’s counsel on all mat-
ters was instrumental in moving this project into completion. I am espe-
cially grateful to Phyllis Rooney, who generously organized a brown-bag
meeting with her colleagues in the Philosophy Department to discuss my
ideas. This book benefited from that discussion with Oakland philoso-
phers Fritz McDonald, Paul Graves, and John Halpin. Finally, Susan
Hawkins offered guidance in too many ways to enumerate. She made the
transition to a new department, university, and city as smooth as it could
be while making it possible to finish the book in practical ways that can-
not be underestimated.
Transforming a manuscript into a book also takes dedicated and
insightful readers who are sensitive to an author’s objectives and personal
vision. I found such readers in Vincent Colapietro, Roger Ward, Andrés
Páez, and the anonymous readers at Oxford University Press. Their
attention to and enthusiasm for this project shaped the content of the
chapters and the trajectory of the book, and their insights have directed
me beyond this project into new areas of research. Finally, I am so grate-
ful to Shannon McLachlan, Brendan O’Neill, Mark LaFlaur, and Joellyn
Ausanka at Oxford University Press, whose kindness and astute handling
of the manuscript have made the complicated process of making a book
enjoyable.
I cannot imagine the years it has taken to write this book without
friendships old and new. I thank Diana Polley, Christopher Bruhn, Tina
Meyerhoff, Jennifer Bernstein, Robert Kaplan, James King, S. J. Rozan,
Jennifer Gurley, Tom Knutson, Anne Vattendahl, Therese Simmons,
Peter Spitzform, Jeff Chapman, Kyle and Laura Edwards, Natalie Cole,
Andy Henry, Kathy Battles, Rachel Andrews, L. Bailey McDaniel, Todd
Estes, Natasha Vaubel, and Ellen Dahl. Our conversations have supported
life and work. I would also like to thank Ben and Nancy Aibel whose
retreat in Vermont was made available to me on several occasions. Much
of the early stages of making connections and drafting happened in the
Green Mountains. This book is a product of their generosity.
Finally, I owe the greatest length and breadth and depth and height of
gratitude to my family, especially to my parents, Linda and Bob Luna.
They are my closest, most enthusiastic supporters. I learn from them
every day that love is unbounded perception, and to them I dedicate this
book.
Abbreviations
∂∂
The following abbreviations are used in the text and notes for frequently
cited works. Full citations are provided on first use in the text.
EL Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and
Lectures
MIND Jonathan Edwards, “The Mind” of Jonathan Edwards:
A Reconstructed Text
NEM Perry Miller, T he New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century
PP William James, T he Principles of Psychology
PTV Thomas Shepard, The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and
Applied
RA Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections
SB Thomas Shepard, T he Sound Believer
TSC Thomas Shepard, Thomas Shepard’s Confessions
VRE William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
ix