Rhetorical Analysis of Jonathan edwards’s Sinners in the hand of an angry god: jeremiad 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. Throughout Edwards’s sermon the use of turgid diction is exceedingly prevalent.
In 1741, Jonathan Edwards writes and delivers the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” His primary focus was to persuade the audience by use of fear to abide by the Puritan religion - much like many Judeo-Christian preachers do today. Edwards encorporates allusions, imagery, and diction to enforce his philosophy upon his audience. Throughout the sermon, Edwards targets the attention of his audience through biblical allusions.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Puritan preacher, Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God transforms how the congregation sees their relationship with God. Edwardss purpose is to show the sinners an opportunity to obtain salvation (104). He adopts a cynical tone in order to save the otherwise damned and helpless souls (104).Edwards immediately starts his sermon by evoking fear and solicitousness into the congregation. He achieves this by appealing to ethos, presenting God and himself as an authority figure. Edwardss purpose by doing this is to help the sinners in the congregation come to realization that they are held in the hand of God (102) and it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds them
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. Jonathan Edwards begins his sermon by quoting
Well respected preacher and philosopher, Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741), enhances the remarkable consequences of remorseless sinners. Edwards’s purpose is to impress upon the Puritan Congregation an abhorrent idea stating that if a sinner does not feel guilt and attempt to correct it, they will anger God and burn in hell. He establishes an audacious tone in order to initiate the fear of going to hell within his religious listeners. Edwards’s most powerful rhetorical strategy is expressed through his noticeable manipulation of pathos, found along with his mentions of logical and ethical foundations.
At the very beginning of the sermon, Edwards explains, “there is nothing between you and Hell but the air; it is only the mere pleasure of G-d that holds you up.” Edwards personifies power to make a point that G-d is above everyone, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. This is the opening to the sermon, where the audience feels their inferiority to G-d right away, realizing that G-d is the only form of salvation they cam possibly receive. Additionally, “if your strength were ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in Hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.” This time, Edwards personifies strength in relation to Hell, working up his audience mid-way through the sermon to get them to fight back against their guilt and petty attempts at ‘spirituality’; and therefore be in G0d’s good graces.
Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth” while having a drastically different topic had similar subtopic and rhetoric language. While Jonathan Edwards warned his congregation of the eternal damnation that will be faced if they did not change their ways, Benjamin Franklin warned and gave advice on financial arrangements. Edwards communicates to his audience how their behavior has consequences, in this case, eternal damnation. Throughout his sermon, his use of pathos is overwhelming. Edwards uses confrontational language, descriptive images, strong fierce language to ingrain his warning into the hearts of his congregation.
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. “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.
“...You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels…,” Jonathan Edwards wrote in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This quote shows pathos, a tool he used to stir up emotion to show that if you’re a sinner God will come for. Edward also shows many other tools as he tries to convince others to exit the sinner life into the Puritan Life. Edward uses ethos when he says, “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present.”
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 the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards talks about how God is the one who is holding Israelites up from falling down. He believes that if a person was to fell, it would be because God wanted him or her to may be because of their wickedness. Moreover, Bradstreet would agree with him that “time brings down what is both strong and tall” (78). According to Edwards, God is ‘sovereign” and no one is above Him (171). Every wicked man “contrives well for himself, and that his schemes won’t fail,” but God knows it well and does not let them escape from the Hell (173).
British Colonial and Christian theologian Jonathan Edwards delivered a sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God”, to a congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts which was then published in 1741. This sermon was the trigger for the First Great Awakening through Britain and the 13 colonies. In his sermon, Edwards utilized a metaphor comparing his audience to an insect being held over a fire in order to instill guilt and fear because of their religious mistakes, ultimately moving them to repent their sins and practice true devotion to the Christian doctrine. In his sermon, Edwards employs a hostile metaphor to invoke feelings of guilt and distress in his audience.
Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan Minister, in his popular sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741), convinces the Puritan congregation that God was wrathful and warns them of the dangers of sinning and being sent to hell. Edwards reinforces these claims by applying repetition, imagery, and metaphors to reach his goal of making the congregation fearful of being sent to hell. Edwards employs repetition to help get his point across about how God has no mercy and once someone is condemned to hell, there is no going back. The word “wrath” is repeated throughout the sermon to demonstrate God’s fury and violence.
It was during the Great Awakening, when powerful preachers like Jonathan Edwards decided to intensify their ways of broadcasting their religious seriousness. The idea of secularism and religious neglect had been the cause for this religious movement. In his sermon, from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards used strategies to guilt, persuade, and redirect the “sinners” into conversion, and to give a wakeup call to those who overemphasize their own worthiness as holy citizens. Throughout his sermon, Edwards used a variety of figurative language like imagery, metaphors, personification, and allusions to reveal his attitude towards “sinners” as unworthy and insignificant in the eyes of God, and his attitude towards God as being enraged
Edwards states, “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards Hell” (88). Edward shows that the people’s sins can be costly and will lead them to Hell. Edwards and Taylor give more details in their writing through the use of figurative
