Rhetorical Appeals In Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

Rhetorical appeals are the art of speaking and writing effectively. There are three main rhetorical appeals, often referred to as ethos, pathos, and logos. These appeals are derived from ancient Greece, or more precisely, the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Ethos appeals to the audience’s sense of trust, pathos, to their sense of emotion, and logos, to their sense of logic. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards delivered a sermon called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to a congregation of puritans in Enfield, Connecticut. This sermon was so influential and full of the use of rhetorical appeals that today it has transformed into a piece of literature that many study in classes. In Edward’s sermon, the utilization of ethos, pathos, and logos create
In the text, this is the primary appeal that Edwards uses to influence the unconverted. The author appeals to the reader's sense of vanity by asking " How awful is it to be left behind at such a day [the day when the saved are in Heaven]! To see so many others feasting while you are pining and perishing [in hell]..."(Edwards 44). This pathos appeal helps Edwards persuade the unconverted because they would not want to be left behind on a wonderful day such as this. 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 numerous 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. This quote could scare them into following Christ because they would not want to perish in hell. Another use of pathos in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is when Edwards describes to the unconverted that “the wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber” (Edwards 41). This is another time when Edwards uses pathos to scare the unconverted into turning away from their wicked ways in fear of being sent away from heaven. Every time that Jonathan Edwards uses the appeal of pathos he uses it to evoke fear or to touch hearts into turning to