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Jonathan Edwards Use Of Imagery In The Great Awakening

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This is a typical sermon of the Great Awakening, emphasizing the belief that Hell is a real place. Edwards hoped that the imagery and language of his sermon would awaken audiences to the horrific reality that he believed awaited them should they continue life without devotion to Christ. The author's tone throughout this selection is threatening, cautionary, condemning, unsympathetic, and strict. Jonathan Edwards uses threatening imagery in order to provoke change. The most famous image used is that of a "loathsome insect." He says that God looks at people as if they were loathsome insects and in fact hates us more than we would hate such an insect. He firstly compares the wrath of God to damned waters, with God holding back "the fiery floods".
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146 Words | 1 Pages

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.

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515 Words | 3 Pages

The story is about how inhumane people really are and how everyone is destined to go to hell. The story says “We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything hangs by; thus easy is it for god when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell…” (Jonathan Edwards, page 120) by him saying this he is saying that it is so easy for us to crush and kill a worm because bugs are always killed, that its ok for a person to do this. He said it is good to punish the humans by sending them to hell or bring hell to them. The author says that the human race always does bad things even without us even knowing and humans are pure evil for doing that and should go to hell for it.

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1982 Words | 8 Pages

The sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with many purposes. The main concept that Jonathan Edwards, the minister who wrote the sermon, wanted to get across is that God does not give any pity to those who do not believe in him and his gospel. He casts all of the sinners into the pits of hell and lets those who have been good live for eternity. This sermon was written after many reports of witchcraft came about in the New England colonies. These reports caused the Salem Witch Trials to occur and many people to become non-believers.

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1763 Words | 8 Pages

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

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1152 Words | 5 Pages

Edwards uses strong imagery to explicate an ominous tone through his preaching. The frightening tone that the speaker has set is portrayed by his use of harsh words. In the beginning Edwards states, “Their foot shall slide in due time... God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go.” In this short warning the speaker is telling the audience that humans are sooner or later going to go to hell.

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726 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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549 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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851 Words | 4 Pages

This is another example of a metaphor that changes the congregation's perspective on Hell. In the sermon he says “ The God that holds you over a pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire” (Edwards 89). This illustration is how human beings are looked at by God. Edward is telling the people they are like the spiders, vulnerable and helpless. Humans have no hesitation in crushing a spider, and killing it.

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873 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1253 Words | 6 Pages

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

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817 Words | 4 Pages

Jonathan Edwards, a preacher, wrote the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". In the sermon, Edwards argues that everyone was out of God's favor and they needed to return to a righteous path. The tone of the sermon is indignant and authoritative. Jonathan Edwards uses imagery, logos, and pathos to encourage the unconverted audience to turn to God in order to escape his wrath. Elemental imagery is used in the sermon to inspire fear in the audience.

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864 Words | 4 Pages

This pathos appeal helps Edwards persuade the unconverted because they would not want to be left behind. He also illuminates that “God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell” (Edwards 41). Edwards discusses the interminably amount of diverse means that God could damn the unconverted to try getting the argument across that they will not comprehend death approaching and it could be at any moment. Another use of pathos in “Sinners” is when Edwards describes to the unconverted that “the wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber” (Edwards 41).

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404 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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928 Words | 4 Pages

The majority of this sermon is dedicated to the audience whom Edwards views with repulsion. He uses imagery to describe the awful Hell that he believes the people in the congregation will end up in and calls it a “great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath” (Paragraph 8). He illustrates the never ending state of Hell in order to frighten everyone in the audience. He sees each and every person as damned and honestly believes they deserve be sent to Hell to burn for all eternity. He feels no sympathy for them because they are completely free to do what they want and he knows that what they do with their free will is commit sin.

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