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The idea of an angry God in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Sinners in the hands of an angry god
Sinners in the hands of an angry god ethos
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Edwards utilizes vivid hell imagery and depicts God as presented in
At this point Edwards has grasped the attention of his listeners by using pathos to pertain to their emotions and feelings. Towards the end of the sermon his tone switches to one of reason in terms of not neglecting his words. He asks a series of rhetorical questions such as those who are unconverted and do not teach their children of Christ that they too will have to witness the wrath of God. As for literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and allegories, Edwards does not disappoint for his use of them most likely whipped a lot of Puritans back into their faith.
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.
Literary analysis of “The sinners in the hands of an angry god” 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.
During the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon, Jonathon Edwards uses intense imagery and care word usage to emphasize many points into both the head and heart of his audience. He wanted people to realize that destruction was imminent: "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them
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.
In Bradstreet’s poem, “Upon the Burning of Our House,” after she is done worrying about her house, she states, “Yet by His gift is made thine own;/ There’s wealth enough, I need no more,/ Farewell, my pelf, farewell my store” (50 - 51). Bradstreet has a calm, soothing tone, as she accepts that what has happened to her doesn’t matter anymore because she has what she needs in Heaven. On the contrary, Jonathan Edwards, when describing God, says, “The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready” (126). Unlike Bradstreet, Edwards sees God as a mighty, angry figure, and he uses an intense, angry tone in his sermon; almost like he is trying to instill fear into his readers.
During the 18th century, many people started questioning religions and some even converted to different religions, this period of time is known as the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards was a preacher in this time and, due to many religious changes, he made his very famous six hour sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Within his speech, Edwards utilizes analogy, imagery, and repetition to frighten his listeners and tell them of God's anger towards sinners. Edwards' implementation of analogy made him sermon sound much more harsh by comparing God's wrath to horrible events. During his sermon, Edwards says, "the wrath of God is like great waters that are damned for the present...more rapid and mighty is its course, when once
Edwards uses this illustration to convey the power of God to the people, many who were incapable of understanding complex imagery. Through the effective use of metaphors along with gripping imagery, Edwards made comparisons to peoples’ everyday lives. He preached that their state of wickedness was as “heavy as lead” and therefore, pulling them down straight toward Hell. This excerpt has a negative connotation in the eyes of the reader. Because society generally dislikes being classified as immoral, the following excerpt also greatly supports Edwards taunting tactics by implementing a sense of guilt with the strategic use of the word “sinner”; "O sinner!
This interpretation of God becomes the reference point for the rest of the sermon. All of the commands and accusations in the sermon rely on Edwards' portrait of God as an angry, all-powerful being that has no obligation to have mercy upon his creations. By convincing his congregation of God's wrathful character, Edwards is then able to convince the congregation that they are in danger of damnation and severe punishment at the hand of this wrathful God. Edwards characterizes God as a being that "abhors" mortal men and "looks upon [them] as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire" (200). Edwards then uses scriptural references to support his claims about the nature of God.
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
“The wrath of God is like great waters that are damned from the present; they increase; more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is give; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty its course, when once it is let loose." In this quotation, Edwards uses
In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Johnathan Edwards uses rhetorical devices such as metaphors, similes and personifications. He uses these in order to scare his audience about Hell and to obey God and his message. In order to get people to follow his message and take his warnings, he uses tactics to scare people into in believing their unfortunate fates if they aren’t obedient to God and the Bible. Edwards uses descriptive images such as metaphors to compare his people to loathsome spiders.
.are in the hands of and angry God” (Edwards 42). This quote from “Sinners” appeals to the sense of logic because it is cause and effect which makes the reader think of what will happen if they do not choose to follow Christ. Edwards says that it is “nothing of your own, nothing that you have ever done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment” (Edwards 43).
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.
