Edwards Puritan Audience

His sermons were made to serve as a wake-up call for those who dismissed God’s magnificence while exaggerating their own value as decent, hard-working individuals. Edwards strongly believed that only a sincere conversion is required for a person to join a church. Preachers like Edwards wanted not only to address their congregations’ intelligence but also to engage their emotions so as to convince them of the weight of their iniquity and motivate them to seek salvation from the wrath they could expect from a powerful God. The results were encouraging as revival was spreading throughout the colonies, but one congregation in Enfield, Connecticut, seemed to be resistant to the call for radical conversion. In response, Edwards was invited to preach there.

This pathos appeal helps Edwards persuade the unconverted because they would not want to be left behind. He also illuminates that “God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell” (Edwards 41). Edwards discusses the interminably amount of diverse means that God could damn the unconverted to try getting the argument across that they will not comprehend death approaching and it could be at any moment. Another use of pathos in “Sinners” is when Edwards describes to the unconverted that “the wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber” (Edwards 41).

His sermon and Bradstreet’s poem are alike in their ability to show eternal life and the prizes and consequences of following and putting your faith into God. Bradstreet shows the consequences of sin by using a subtle interpretation to go back to righteous ways, Edwards on the other hand is very aggressive in the way he shows the price of sin and to “persuade” un pure puritans back to christ. He is very detailed in the way he speaks on hellfire and pain. Both writers attempt to draw back puritans and to show the cost of sin in two different ways. Both writers show the eternal life given to them good or bad , sinful or righteous.

In 1741, the Theologian delivered the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to a small congregation of people, yet it started an uprising in the theology of the Great Awakening. He wanted to install fear of hell, and to tell everyone to repent to God for forgiveness. In the sermon, Edwards uses language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation, or otherwise known as figurative language.

Edwards was a preacher and when he gave the sermon, he gave it in complete monotone. People were even more frightened and scared because of his emotionless sermon and more people paid attention. Jonathan Edward’s sermon speaks of how sinners should be cast off and be destroyed by God because it is God who is everything and if someone were to turn against God why should he or she get another chance. Some values that Edward’s puts in his sermon are yet similar to John Winthrop’s sermon but Edward’s sermon is very negative and was made to scare people into changing their ways. God is almost everything to people of the colonial period because of their fight for survival and if someone is a sinner or goes against God then they will be punished.

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.

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”: Text Analysis In the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards proclaims that without God’s courageous heart and belief in each and every one of us, we would all be suffering in the furnace of Hell, accompanying the devil. He makes this known by using many occurrences of imagery, and metaphors; Edwards’s style of writing and frightening diction also assists in getting his point across to the audience. Edward’s sermon, reaching out to all religious followers, helps to comprehend the faith and wrath that God possesses. Edward uses the metaphor “…the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart.”

Through the analyzation of this figurative language it is apparent to see what his attitudes towards both sinners and God were. He saw sinners as despicable beings who were less than human in both his and God’s eyes and God as almighty and justifiably angry. This sermon swept across the colonies and completely changed people 's’ perspectives on religion and he arguably started the revival of religion known as the Great

God has a right to be angry at the human world. Humans make mistakes left and right, but we don’t sin in purpose. God forgives us for our sins, but the Author of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” said something different. Jonathan Edwards told many that even the smallest sin, even a sin that can easily be set right, deserves the same punishment as killing someone.

Reverend Jonathan Edwards’ “from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” relies upon pathos to recommit the Puritans. The sermon heavily plays upon the Puritan’s fear. During the sermon, Reverend Jonathan Edwards emphasizes that “there is nothing between [the Puritans] and hell but the air” without God (Edwards 80). Using their fear of hell and god, Reverend Jonathan Edwards compels Puritans to save themselves from eternal wrath by recommiting. However, fear is not the only emotion used.

This is a powerful commentary of the time that directly relates to this day in age. Human identity is now just as sinful, if not more so, than it was during Paul’s time in Rome. The media is continually reporting on acts of depravity including moral decay, sexual acts, and murder. In Romans (1:26) it states “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.”, and in Romans (1:28) it states “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind…” showing the constant state of sin between then and

The grief he contains prepares the audience for the catastrophic tragedy. Nevertheless, Oedipus fails to comprehend Teiresias’ warning, and calls him “cold, stubborn, fool (38)” out of anger; he could no longer resist the need of unmasking the murderer. The diction he chooses demonstrates the way he scorns the prophet, considers him to be puny as he does not provide him with the answer he wants. Finally, Teiresias is fed up after Oedipus shunned him, and blurts out “the plague is [Oedipus](39).” He discloses, Oedipus is the root of the problem that arose in Thebes; Oedipus is shaken by the statement, and deems that he is a victim of conspiracy.

In the sermon "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God" Jonathon Edwards uses various rhetorical devices to persuade his audience. The sermon was made on July 8, 1741 at a time were everyone believed in God and everything revolved around the bible. In his sermon, Edwards used allusions, similes, and personification to show God's anger towards humans. In the 17th century people's beliefs were all based on the bible. Everyone could refer to the bible as one of the only books they knew.

The sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with many purposes. The main concept that Jonathan Edwards, the minister who wrote the sermon, wanted to get across is that God does not give any pity to those who do not believe in him and his gospel. He casts all of the sinners into the pits of hell and lets those who have been good live for eternity. This sermon was written after many reports of witchcraft came about in the New England colonies. These reports caused the Salem Witch Trials to occur and many people to become non-believers.

Imagine everyone’s life was judged every second of everyday. By a greater power, God. And that greater power would hold someone over a pit of fire, because they committed a sin, would you commit a sin? Jonathan Edwards was a powerful fire-and-brimstone preacher during the Great Awakening and author of the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Edwards uses a variety of metaphors in his writing, all metaphors have a strong effect on what Edwards experience during the Great Awakening.