Religion In American Literature: Winthorp, Edwards, And Paine

Jonathan Edwards uses several types of writing skills to persuade his audience of God’s intentions. His use of figurative language, analogies, imagery, and repetition all emphasize Edwards’s views. He uses fear, anger, and apathy to appeal to the audience in attempt to warn his audience of God’s intentions.

In the introductory chapter of Why College Matters to God, the author focused on what a worldview is and why it is important in a Christian college setting. According to the author, “A worldview is a framework of ideas, values, and beliefs about the basic makeup of the world.” One point made was that worldviews are more about actions, not just beliefs. It is something that affects how we perceive everything in this world. Our worldview is “pre-rational and instinctive.” This means that we make decision based on our worldview without even being aware of its effect on us. Everyday we look at the world through the lenses of our worldview. Often we are unaware of how it shapes our perspective, but that does not mean it is non-existent. The author argues that our Christian worldview should always be open for revision as we encounter new people, ideas, and experiences. We should learn to use a pencil more often than a pen when deciding what we believe.

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.

The great awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the 1730s and 1740s. It started in England and then gradually made its way over to the American colonies. During this time, many different preachers and religious speakers went around and gave speeches to the people. Jonathan Edwards was one of Americas most important and original philosophical theologians who also went around and gave speeches about God and hell. One of his well-known sermon is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached at the meeting house in the village of Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741, at the height of the great awakening. In this sermon, Edwards focused on the consequences of leading a sinful life, the power of God and repenting of ones sins, in order to be saved from hell. The purpose behind this piece of writing was not to terrorize or dismay the hearers, but to make them repent and believe in God again. This piece was aimed at those who lacked belief in God as well as churches. 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.

It is 1741. The Enlightenment is spreading worldwide. The puritan people are leaving God. Johnathan Edwards gives a sermon on July 8th , 1741, trying to convince his fellow Puritan people to come back to God. He is going to try and accomplish this by giving his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God '. 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.

John Edwards Religious Affections discusses the two kinds of exercise of religion. The first exercise he talks about is trials. Trials benefit religion as proof. No true religion is trial-less, but has plenty of rewards at the same time. Edwards wrote “ Hereby the truth of it is manifested, and appears indeed true religion; they above all other things, have a tendency to distinguish between true religion and false.” He is telling true religion the people that trials shine true light on religion and that is a beautiful thing about Christianity; it can withstand all trials. The biggest trial was showing restraint when Jesus was killed. The religion continued to be pure, even with the Son of God no longer being on Earth. The second is being

Jonathan Edwards speech "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." is a speech that uses techniques to attract the puritans attention I found him using Personification, Metaphors and also Imagery.

Edwards really lets the message of “Gods wrath” sink into our minds to show how mighty, powerful, and capable the Lord is. The Lord gives us many opportunities to rely on Him and when we need his love and mercy the most. People ignore that and believe they can be their own gods. This is not right because Jesus says in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the father except through me.” Meaning that the only way to not end up in Hell is to except Jesus Christ into your heart.

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. Since these things started to occur Puritan ministers, such as Jonathan Edwards, had to make a change.

Often in Sermons ministers/pastors persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or moral fashion. Such is the case in “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” by Johnathan Edwards where he says “sinners should repent for their sins or burn in the eternal pit of hell. If sinners repent, they will receive eternal life.” God destroys sinners, but is merciful to the repentant. Edwards wanted to impact his audience by appealing to the fears pity and vanity. Edwards had a powerful impact on his Puritan audience because the use of a cautionary tone, explicit imagery, and vivid figurative language.

Often in Sermon writers persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or more fashion. Such in the case in the Johnathan Edwards "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" where he sinners Edward wanted to affect his audience by appealing to their fears pity and vanity. Edwards had a(n) powerful impact on his Puritian audience because tone encouraging, imagery and visual and symbolic figurative language.

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.

People want something to look forward to after their lifetime. For the Puritans God is what they look forward to. To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet, Upon the Burning of Our House by Anne Bradstreet, and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards perceive God in different ways. After analysing Bradstreet and Edward’s poems I have found many differences in their styles of writing and views of God, yet they lead to a common conclusion. Bradstreet has a less intense and more happy writing style and portrays God as someone to be praised and thankful for, while Edwards is way more intense in his writing style and portrays God as someone who should be feared while also praised and followed.

Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine have a lot of similarities, with one of them being their beliefs on religion. They both had very strong beliefs that organized religion was a tool that was being used to manipulate people. Thomas Jefferson went as far as writing his own version of the bible. The idea that organized religion is used for control is one of the major reasons they both agree and believe strongly on the separation of Church and State. Though they were seen as “anti-religious” or “anti-Christian” they just believed in variations of what at that time the Christians believed. These variations like a true God, and the divine were more focused on nature than a single being. At that time, they would characterize these beliefs as deism.

Jonathan Edwards once said: “Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.” Since birth (October 5th, 1703), Jonathan has always been a devoted Puritan which explains why he began the Great Awakening, along with George Whitefield. Edwards started preaching and wanted people to reconvert to Puritanism. His work, “Sinners at the Angry Hands of God,” was written on July 8, 1741. Many of his works were directed to his movement, the Great Awakening. Unfortunately, Edwards died on March 22, 1758, due to smallpox, shortly after being nominated as president of Princeton University (Fickas). Born to a farming family, Edward Taylor was born in 1642 in Leicestershire, England (“Edward Taylor”). Taylor began preaching in 1671. He wrote one of the most popular works in Puritan literature, Huswifery. Regrettably, Edward died on June 24th 1729 (Schafer sec. 1). Despite Edward Taylor’s and Jonathan Edwards’ devotion for Puritanism, they differ in their perception of God, figurative language, and their incentive for writing.