‘Men without chests’ and preaching to the emotions

One of the hallmarks of Evangelicalism is its insistence on the necessity of conversion. But this is, of course, not unique to the Evangelical movement.

Did not the North African pioneer of Christian Latin, Tertullian, make the same point thus: ‘The soul is not born Christian; it becomes Christian’?

Conversion of the affections

Of course, the quintessential story of conversion in the Ancient Church is to be found in the writing of another African, namely, Augustine and his justly-famous Confessions. In this work, penned in the late 390s, Augustine developed an understanding of conversion as a redirection of the affections. He recalled the effect, for example, that the preaching of Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, had upon his affections: ‘I was all ears to seize upon his eloquence, I also began to sense the truth of what he said, though only gradually. … I thrilled with love and dread alike. I realised that I was far away from you … and, far off, I heard your voice saying I am the God who IS’.