Rhetorical Analysis Of Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

945 Words4 Pages

There are many forms of art. As for orators their ideas are their canvases, their language is their paint brush and their wordings are their colors. Orators combine them together to paint elaborate paintings, the painting of speaking. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741) is a typical sermon which was written by Jonathan Edwards in the Great Awakening. Edwards wants to use the sermon to awaken his audience that they should dedicate their lives to God. In the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards delivers his ideas about the God’s rage and human sinfulness to his audience by using strong diction, imagery, similes. Edwards uses strong dictions such as the repetition of the word “wrath,” to emphasize the exceeding anger of God to alert his listeners of the dangers of sin. Diction is the choice of words an author uses. Different dictions can have diverse effects on the …show more content…

Some scientific data shows that the visual impression is usually easier to memorize than an acoustic impression. In the speech, he creates the image of God’s conniption like “the bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart and strains the bow …” (Edwards 41). Nowadays, utilizing PowerPoint is a really common way to deliver a speech; however, Edwards uses imagery, sketching an image by language, to make his speech more remarkable as well. He uses expressive language to“sketch” the picture of a bow of God’s anger that has been bent and aimed, and is ready to shoot at the sinners. Edwards uses this picture to point out God is exasperated about the sinners and if they did not repent, God’s bow will shoot at them. Edwards uses the picture to address the sinners are religious and he hopes that they will realize their sins. Moreover, Edwards also uses similes to make his point about God’s power which is more impressive than

Open Document