The world contains a massive variety of different religions with different branching denominations, within the U.S. and without. This can be due to minor differences such as an alternate view on the importance of rituals, or it can be due to something major like clashing views on God. Sometimes, even within one religious group, there are views that butt heads and challenge each other. In terms of Puritanism, specifically centered around the Calvinist ideology, there were two men whose ideas on God differed greatly. These men were John Winthrop and Jonathan Edwards, who wrote A Modell of Christian Charity and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God respectively. Winthrop sees God as a being that inherently focuses on love, while Edwards sees Him …show more content…
A Modell of Christian Charity is a speech he made before the group was about to head out to sea together, and it was necessary that they maintain good relations. He even explains this towards the end when, to avoid God’s wrath, he says “…wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion…allwayes having before our eyes our Commission and Community in the worke…” (388). To keep his fellow Puritans in line, he describes God as loving, kind, and just, at least when His will obeyed. Winthrop’s listeners were given significantly more hope than Edwards’ listeners, who he claims were doomed to eternal suffering by an ultimately unforgiving …show more content…
He claims that the sinners within his congregation “…have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners” (734). Throughout Edwards’ speech, he has described God as this amazingly cruel being who relishes in the idea of dropping sinners into Hell, be it man, woman, or child, and yet here is a sign of some compassion. If they convert over to God’s side, He will welcome them with open arms and they will be allowed to join the others “…with their hearts filled with love to Him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in His own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God” (734). There is a duality within Winthrop’s and Edwards’ view in this area, as one of the main focuses of God seems to be expanding His reach. Winthrop’s God looked to expand his body to spread more love, and Edwards’ God wants to expand to add more “elect” to his side. Edwards gives his audience a depiction of God that is so terrifying that it scares some of the unconverted members of his congregation into converting over. By emphasizing the wrathful side of God more than the loving side, he uses God’s easily manipulated nature to suit his