Isaac Watts

Reviews / Votes

Beynon has produced an erudite, brilliant investigation into the work of Watts. * Reading Religion * Isaac Watts the Dissenting hymnwriter was also an eighteenth-century intellectual who exerted a powerful influence over several generations through his extensive writings. His achievement, as Graham Beynon shows, was to build on his Puritan inheritance by engaging with contemporary thought so as to lay the foundations for the reformation of religion. In many ways he anticipated the concerns of the Evangelical Revival that took off in his later years. * David Bebbington, University of Stirling, UK * Reason and passion and the relationship between them are key themes in the early eighteenth century. Graham Beynon has made a significant contribution in this area with this volume on reason and passion in the works of Isaac Watts. Beynon examines Watts's approach to reason and passion and the interconnections between those subjects and preaching, worship and prayer. His study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of English Dissent in the first part of the 18th century. * Robert Strivens, Principal, London Theological Seminary, UK * The theologian and hymn-writer Isaac Watts was one of the major shapers of eighteenth-century evangelicalism, yet he has received far less scrutiny than the Wesleys or Jonathan Edwards. Graham Beynon's book joins other recent studies by Isabel Rivers and Tessa Whitehouse in turning the spotlight onto Watts. He reveals a serious and consistent thinker, one who found a place for religious passion within the context of England's Protestant Enlightenment. What makes the book particularly useful is its judicious assessment of how Watts perpetuated and modified the Puritan tradition. * John Coffey, University of Leicester, UK * The strength of this book is that it takes Isaac Watts seriously as a thinker. As such, it will be particularly useful for scholars who wish to better understand Watts' views of reason and passion, and to see how these positions informed his approach to preaching, praise and prayer. * The Expository Times *