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.
Individuals in colonial American society are similar and different to the individual in contemporary society. The author Jonathan Edwards delivers a sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a colonial piece talking about how God will be angry with you if you don't listen to him. The author Patrick Henry wrote a political speech called "Speech to the Virginia Convention 1775" is a colonial piece giving reasons why America should rebel against Britain. The author William Jefferson Clinton made another political speech called "The Speech to the 2012 Democratic National Convention" is about wanting to reelect Obama for president.
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. Johnathan Edwards uses many rhetorical strategies in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". He uses repetition throughout the sermon. The main idea that he repeats is that if you do not love and believe in God, then you are going to hell.
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
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.
He made certain of this through his sermons with “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” considered by far one of his most influential. In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards utilizes various rhetorical devices that deeply contribute to the thoroughness of his preachment. Also, he preaches the immense fear of all sinners, packed with metaphors, precise diction, and vivid imagery to frighten all wrongdoers into being reborn.
Have you ever been deathly afraid of something or someone? If so, then you have experienced some of the emotions that the audience endured during the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. This is written by the great theologian Jonathan Edwards. It is recorded that many screamed in terror when Edwards was giving this approximately six hour long sermon. This sermon given in a level voice manor was delivered in 1741 as a piece of oratory.
Edwards wrote his sermon in hopes of persuading his audience to view God in his way through both emotion and logic. By illustrating Hell as a “dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God” (para. 1), he is playing with the emotions of his audience in an attempt to put them in a state of fear. He continually uses long-winded descriptions about God’s disregard for humans and the eternal torment that awaits them. This shows that he is not only trying to make his audience feel the emotion of fear, but he also attempts to convince his audience through logic. By settting this emotion of fear upon his audience, he offers a sort of solace at the end of his sermon, quoting from the bible in his final line.
Edwards also implements the rhetorical question, “who knows the power of Gods anger?” this presents the question of who will suffer the eternal dreadful misery. The answer of who is able to escape his anger is the ones who repent and are born again. The whole sermon is an entire repetitive restatement exemplifying Gods mighty wrath and our only chance of salvation is to be reborn, to develop a more personal intimate relationship with God. An only this way he pardons our sins and allows us to exult in
The speaker of this story is Jonathan Edwards. The occasion is in the year of 1741 and Edwards is at a congregation in Enfield, Connecticut. The audience is the group or congregation of emotional and religious people listening to his sermon. The purpose is to convince people to stop sinning and convert to Christianity. The topic being addressed is that the congregation has sinned and caused God to become angry with them.
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. In the sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry god,” Edwards uses different types of
God Gives Us Free Will Jonathan Edwards preaches that if people follow God and obey him they will experience his great mercy. “Sinners in The Hands of an Angry God,” he explains this concept in his sermon. Most people back in 1741 and to this day would be persuaded by his sermon about the Lord because of how passionately and strongly he spoke about his beliefs’. In this sermon Edwards refers to Gods everlasting wrath. He describes Gods anger towards those who do not follow and believe in Him.
In “Sinners in The Hands of an Angry God”, Johnathan Edwards uses fear to create images that help his audience experience the consequences of sinful behavior. He uses imagery and figurative language to persuade his readers. He wants us to get a mental picture of Hell in your head and he wants us to fear the wrath of God. One such image was when Edward wrote, “When men are on god’s hands and they could fall to Hell, natural men are held in the hands of God, over the pit of Hell.” God could let us fall into the eternity of burning flames anytime He wants to.
On July 8, 1741 Jonathan Edwards delivered the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” During this time many people were moving away from their Puritan beliefs and did not make God a priority. In the message he talked about how everyone was a sinner and how everyone belongs in hell. He also talked about how if God wanted to He would throw everyone in Hell, but since He gave us His Son we should take Him and repent. While delivering this message many people began to repent and ask for forgiveness.
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.
