Rhetorical Analysis Of Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

Edwards uses several grim and descriptive similes to show the restraint God shows in holding back his which could be seen as mercy if it’s thought about it in a deep enough manner. This mercy is demonstrated in lines such as, “ I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God 's mere will.” ( Edwards 110) . However God’s wrath is more prominent in the sermon in lines like, “God 's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces: they are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames.” ( Edwards 111). This line clearly shows the true wrath of good in its destructive glory. As seen throughout this sermon Edwards preaches with an angry possible aggressive

this point Edwards has grasped the attention of his listeners by using pathos to pertain to their

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.

Often in the sermons pastors persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or more fashion. Such is the case in Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” where he sends sinners to hell, who do not repent. Edwards wanted to impact his audience by appealing to their fears, pity and vanity. Edwards had a powerful impact on his puritan audience because of his use of a cautionary tone, clear imagery and complex figurative language.

“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. The most important feature of a sermon is the application of a scripture text to the personal experience of the listener. Especially this last part is what reduced many of Edwards’s listeners to tears. In Edwards’s sermon the scripture text is “Their foot shall slide in due time”. This meant that eventually, all sinners would be punished by God, which could be at any time. Edwards speaks of a wrathfull God, a God who by Puritan standards is considered forgiving for not letting all of humanity fall into the deepest pits of hell. Edwards reminds people that mankind is nothing compared to God and that that all of humankind is guilty and deserves to be punished.

"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. In crafting his highly effective sermon, Edwards utilizes his authority as a man of God and as an interpreter of the scriptures, a logical and direct organization of arguments, and violent imagery to convince his audience of the vengeance of God against man.

Johnathan Edwards throughout his life time was able to captivate the attention and hearts of his audience with impactful speeches that boasted clever rhetorical devices. Using rhetorical devices to evoke emotional responses from his audience, Johnathan Edwards was able to maintain a potent role in his society throughout the early 1700’s. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edward’s displayed the potential of rhetorical devices as he delivered his message of fear to the audience in an effective manner. Throughout the sermon Edwards utilized several forms of rhetorical devices including, similes and metaphors, repetition and alliteration, and parallelism.

Figurative language can be a compelling factor in literary works ranging from romantic poetry to political speeches. It forces the reader, or listener, to visualize and understand what the author is trying to say. Jonathan Edwards utilized this writing technique in his powerful sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards used imagery, metaphors, and personification to express his differentiating attitudes towards both sinners and God which consisted of complete disgust in regards to the former and unwavering respect for the latter.

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.

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.

In order to emphasize God’s contempt for the audience, Jonathan Edwards utilizes inflammatory diction and comparisons of God’s anger to a bow and arrow and “black clouds” to instill fear in the audience so that they will accept God as their savior, provoking a religious revival. Throughout the sermon, Edwards utilizes “fiery” phrases such as “furnace of wrath”, “wrath…burns like fire”, and “glowing flames of the wrath of God” in order to establish a connection between God’s fury and a burning fire, reaffirming the reality of going to hell, as hell is commonly associated with fire. Because fires are also very devastating and unpredictable, Edwards emphasizes the power and degree of God’s disdain and his ability to cause drastic change at unexpected times, making God’s patience seem fragile.

Impression means the first and immediate effect of an experience or perception upon the mind; sensation. There are impressionistic paintings and impressionistic music. As for orators their ideas are their canvases, their language is their paint brush and their wordings are their colors that orators combine them together to paint elaborate paintings, the painting of speaking. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741) is a topical sermon which was wrote 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

During the Great Awakening Period of America, the Puritan theologian Johnathan Edwards delivered a condescending and radical sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The movement from 1740-1745 focused on reforming religion and morals, since the Puritan hierarchy had grown stagnate (Harmon and Holman 47). The intent of Edwards’ sermon was to strike fear in his congregation; however, he did not use a loud, echoing voice, but instead a dry, monotone voice to present his thoughts. The inspiration for Edwards’ speech was from Deuteronomy 32:25, “Their foot shall slide in due time.” Edwards mastered the use of imagery and Biblical allusion in his sermons to invoke emotion and pull on the heart strings of his listeners. His use of imagery can be broken down into three major categories: figurative language to thoroughly describe his idea, emotional appeal to cause intense feelings in the minds and hearts of his audience, and logical appeal to make distinct comparisons to the Bible; Edwards masterfully combined these techniques in this sermon to

Being a quiet and a good listener, reading has always been on the top of the list of my hobbies. Additionally, I am a person who loves to know and appreciate historical art works, lifestyles, and literature works. Thus, getting a chance to read American literature was a wish being fulfilled for me. Amongst all the passages and literary pieces I have read so far in this book, I had trouble in grasping the facts stated in “A Report of the Newfound Land of Virginia” by Thomas Hariot. I am also not satisfied with the organization of the text in the book. On the other hand, the piece having an impeccable impression on my mind was the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards. His words made me feel like I was witnessing the world of the angry God, which he was referring to in the whole passage. Although there are some features in the writings I don’t like, reading about the history and historical literature still feels appealing and entertaining to me.

In the speech sinners in the hands of an angry god the subject is about how god is