In order to convince the people in Colonial America to follow his teachings, George Whitefield gave many sermons across the colonies by using rhetorical strategies and persuasive techniques in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.” One strategy that is used early on, shock tactics, hooks the listeners in and scares them into living out his teaching. “Neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them…” This quotation uses a dark depiction of hell that will stay in the listener's mind so they will be afraid of going to hell and listen to Whitefield so they too may learn how to change and go to Heaven. Another technique is imagery, which can be found frequently throughout the sermon. …show more content…
It also touches on the idea of changing your ways quickly, because you never know at what point you will die, and nobody wanted to go to hell without a chance for salvation. A final example of a technique used is a play on guilt which can be found near the end of the sermon, “How awful is it to be left behind at such a
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is known as the climax of The Great Awakening, which was the biggest religious movement in history. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, to his church, which left his listeners crying and even contemplating suicide. On the surface, “Sinners” has basic religious meaning but, deeper down, he is talking about more than just a religious conversion. Edward’s message to his audience was that there is a wrathful God who will punish all who have not had a change of heart. He portrays this through imagery, repetition, and figurative language.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Puritan preacher, Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God transforms how the congregation sees their relationship with God. Edwardss purpose is to show the sinners an opportunity to obtain salvation (104). He adopts a cynical tone in order to save the otherwise damned and helpless souls (104).Edwards immediately starts his sermon by evoking fear and solicitousness into the congregation. He achieves this by appealing to ethos, presenting God and himself as an authority figure. Edwardss purpose by doing this is to help the sinners in the congregation come to realization that they are held in the hand of God (102) and it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds them
Jonathan Edwards, in the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" presents his beliefs through the usage of repetition and imagery. He expresses his thoughts to persuade readers of the wrath of God. Edwards usage of words and his repetition allows the reader to undestand what he wants the congregation to grasp from the text. In the sermon Edward repeats the phrase " the wrath of God" he emphasizes on the wrath of Almighty God to make it known that no one has the power to resist God, a persons actions can dertermine their destiny which can either be hell or heaven. the purpose of his repetion was to terrify the potestants into obeying his demands and prevent them into commiting a sin and burning into the firey pot of
Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth” while having a drastically different topic had similar subtopic and rhetoric language. While Jonathan Edwards warned his congregation of the eternal damnation that will be faced if they did not change their ways, Benjamin Franklin warned and gave advice on financial arrangements. Edwards communicates to his audience how their behavior has consequences, in this case, eternal damnation. Throughout his sermon, his use of pathos is overwhelming. Edwards uses confrontational language, descriptive images, strong fierce language to ingrain his warning into the hearts of his congregation.
In Jonathan Edwards's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards, through his heavy use of similes and metaphors, thoroughly conveys to the audience that humanity's faith ultimately lies in the hands of an omnipotent, all-encompassing being. Written in this sermon is, "Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead...", and Edwards's intentions towards writing such a substantial line is most likely to emanate human wickedness, distinctly clarifying that the weight of our innate evilness is as heavy as lead is, thus concluding that it is outside of our nature to be able to support this great weight. This is why our wickedness must be carried by a being outside of us that is capable of bearing all of humanity's wickedness. Building onto
He plys many different rhetorical strategies to convince his listeners to follow his word. He uses strategies including, repetition, appeal to fear, appeal to urgency and problem solution. Johnathan Edwards uses many rhetorical strategies in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". He uses repetition throughout the sermon. The main idea that he repeats is that if you do not love and believe in God, then you are going to hell.
In sinners in the hands of an angry God Jonathan Edward’s most effectively appeals to the people who have yet to convert to a puritan's by using rhetorical analysis. One of the first metaphors he uses was when he was describing the fire that God holds you over and if provoked (when you sin) he will drop you down to hell. He uses a great analogy when he talks about it because he says”The God that holds you over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire”, and that is a real interpretation of what we are to God in Edward’s eyes. All these metaphors can also be used as imagery too because the author uses such good words and phrases it good that you can imagine what he is saying.
Jonathan Edwards was a revivalist, preacher, philosopher, and a protestant during the 18th century. During the 18th century, he wrote a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God which is an example of The Great Awakening. The Great Awakening was a time period where they started to use descriptive language and they really started to focus on the individual. Edwards’s sermon expresses the ideology of emotionalism, persecution, and revivalism. While I was reading his sermon I realized that his sermon really expresses the ideology of emotionalism.
Rhetorical Analysis of Jonathan edwards’s Sinners in the hand of an angry god: jeremiad Jonathan edwards, is known as one of the most important religious figures of the great awakening, edwards became known for his zealous sermon “sinners at the hand of an angry god”. During his sermon he implies that if his congregation does not repent to christ they are in “danger of great wrath and infinite misery”. Throughout this sermon edwards uses literary devices such as strong diction, powerful syntax and juxtaposition to save his congregation from eternal damnation. Throughout Edwards’s sermon the use of turgid diction is exceedingly prevalent.
In “sinners in the hands of an angry God”, Jonathan Edwards uses different types of literary techniques, such as, imagery, metaphor, similes, repetition, and rhetorical questions to emphasize his point. His point is to scare the people and make them want to repent, which is the theme of the sermon. In the sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry god,” Edwards uses different types of
The majority of this sermon is dedicated to the audience whom Edwards views with repulsion. He uses imagery to describe the awful Hell that he believes the people in the congregation will end up in and calls it a “great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath” (Paragraph 8). He illustrates the never ending state of Hell in order to frighten everyone in the audience. He sees each and every person as damned and honestly believes they deserve be sent to Hell to burn for all eternity. He feels no sympathy for them because they are completely free to do what they want and he knows that what they do with their free will is commit sin.
Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” seem at first glance quite similar to one another regarding context, however, after taking a closer look, it becomes apparent that there are some substantial differences. These differences cannot be understood without the knowledge of cultural context concerning the Puritan belief system and their lifestyle. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with the sole purpose of scaring and intimidating the people that purtinans believed to be sinners. Edwards’s work contributed to a movement called “The Great Awakening”. It’s objective was to make the so-called ‘sinners’ aware of their wrongdoings and compel them to repent.
Rhetorical Analysis "Fear is an instructor of great sagacity and the herald of all resolutions. "- Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” was a sermon written and delivered by American reverend Jonathan Edwards in 1741, and was an outstanding example of the potentially dominant convincing powers of the use of Rhetoric. The sermon, even when read silently, is effective in projecting a specific interpretation of the wrathful nature of God and the sinful nature of man.
The sermon is given in his famous "fire and brimstone" style, as many other sermons of the time period. He utilizes imagery, logical, and emotional appeals in order to encourage people to convert to
The Evolution of American Literature American literature has changed over many years. Some of these works have helped to shape how we live, work, and think. Others are a reminder of a past that may have been grim or pleasant, depending on how the writer may have seen it. Some works of literature that show the evolution of Americans and our religion could be The World on the Turtle’s Back, The Crucible, and Self-Reliance.