Coleridge's Aids To Reflection: With The Author's Last Corrections

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge's Aids To With The Author's Last Corrections by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a 19th-century edition of Coleridge's aphoristic meditation on religion, philosophy, and moral life. The volume presents Coleridge's system of a religious philosophy that seeks to reconcile reason and revelation, distinguishing reason (the universal, governing light) from the understanding (the discursive, experience-bound faculty). In the text, the editor—John M'Vickar, with Prefaces and advertisements—frames Coleridge's influential ideas about Prudence, Morality, and Spiritual Religion, and explains how reading each aphorism requires inward reflection and personal experience. The work surveys the history of Coleridge's thought, clarifies the method for studying his fragments, and defends a Christian philosophy grounded in a visible church, covenanted means, and the life of faith. It emphasizes that true religion is a living process, not a mere theoretical system, and it argues for a unity of heart and mind in the pursuit of truth, virtue, and divine grace.

402 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1825

About the author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his major prose work Biographia Literaria.

Reviews

[josh patch]

As a total work, kind of a mess. But Coleridge’s earnest tone and his will to bring cheerful war against all the pernicious philosophies of his time are compelling. If you care about Christian theological controversies, you’ll like it. He actually has good thoughts on minutiae like paedobaptism and English Arminianism.

The best insights for my money are 1) his famous distinction between reason and understanding, 2) his ideas on figuratively language in scripture, and 3) his unique take on original sin, which he sees as the basis of all religion.

Aids to Reflection deserves to be rediscovered as a work of Christian philosophy.

[Austin Hoffman]

I. I hate aphorisms.
II. The garnish is more than the dish.
III. Aphorisms are for the lazy who can’t supply a unifying thought.
IV. Always read the footnotes.
V. Want to hear something totally unrelated?
VI. I don’t think I will read this one again.