As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
There is a big difference between loving God and “falling in love” or “being in love” with God. It is not only junior high girls who struggle with this issue, however. Confusing romantic love with “chesed”—God’s rich, loyal, covenant-keeping love—is an ancient tradition.
Viewed in isolation, some passages of Scripture seem to convey that there is a special danger in the human intellect—danger that is greater than the hazards of, for example, “the heart.” Sadly, these passages are often viewed “in isolation” in churches strongly influenced by revivalism, romanticism (see also IEP), or both.
Used as slogans, passages like the following seem solidly anti-intellectual:
“Affectus per solam, the opposite of hyper-rationalism, ‘is an exaltation of strongly-felt feelings, a deprecation of reason, and the subsequent infantilization of Christian faith.’” - Acton
“The difference between godly emotion and sentiment is tricky, that is why I needed to write this post. Sentimentality takes the will captive to do her bidding. Whereas, healthy emotion and feeling are servants to the intellect and will.”
“Do formal commitments enhance or stifle the heart’s longings? Romanticism, as the 19th-century literary and philosophical movement was called, insists that formality represses truth and that the only honest lifestyle is to follow one’s heart.”
Discussion