Preview

Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
517 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Analysis
? When Jonathan Edwards gave his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (291-303) he used several analogies that would give his listeners a better understanding of the danger the non-believers were in. He tells his congregation that “There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God” (293). The use of this analogy he is tells his people that unbelievers have no protection against God. They have nowhere to hide; there is no place that is safe from God’s judgment of the wicked. By using the fortress analogy, Edwards is using a picture of something his listeners would be familiar with. There was probably at least one fort close to where these people lived and worked. They would see the fort as the best protection from

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jonathan Edwards wrote this lecture, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” to preach to the congregation of his church during the period of Great Awakening, a time of religious revival. He knows how to persuade and uses numerous techniques to do so. In his sermons, Edward’s expressive, informative, and argumentative writing style and his use of simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, and tone creates a fearful, emotional image in the minds of his readers.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the excerpt Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards, he demonstrates many different Puritan ideas. Edward feels just as the thoughts that are changing later on were based upon. He believes God as a deity who longs for his people to lead great, generous lives. Rather than talk gently about sinful behavior, Edwards considered it most effective to discuss God’s wrath. Rather than believing in the idea of predestination, he believed people had the power to save themselves by living a good life. His relationship with God was very strong, which encouraged him to to create better individuals by writing his sermons. The purpose is to aware of people of their behavior and conduct here on earth is for more significant more essential…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the sermon, “Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards utilizes imagery as one of the rhetorical devices in order to scare his audience back to the pious ways of the first generation Puritans. Edwards’ vivid descriptions of hell and eternal torment are examples of the emotional appeal pathos. He uses figurative language including metaphors, similes, and personification to illustrate this unfortunate scenario in the minds of his listeners. For example, Edwards’ states, “The devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up…” (8-10). In this example the audience can clearly imagine the horrors of hell, which encourages them to look to God for salvation, thus also making use of logos as the audience rationalizes and considers the situation. Hell is described as a “world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone…” (19-10), among many other things. The speaker/writer’s depictions of hell work to keep the audience members on their toes so they remember what they are doomed for if they dare to stray further from the Church or anger God even more than they have already done so. The rich imagery in this sermon is significant to the uniqueness of the piece because Edwards’ uses this literary device to scare the audience into compliance, and it serves as a main support for the author’s overall purpose, which is to get people to solidify ties to the…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jonathan Edwards, author of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of “The Minister’s Black Veil,” were both strong, influential writers. Although both Hawthorne and Edwards were strong writers, the way they conveyed their message to their readers were quite different. Both Edwards and Hawthorne shared a main directive. Their writing style was not only effective but also quite different. Edwards who was more blunt and straightforward in his writing, used that approach to be an efficient writer.…

    • 261 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” approaches the audience with a call to action. Jonathan does not soften his blows of aggression towards those listening to his sermon. Edwards’ use of imagery and syntax add to the emotional effect of the sermon. “The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string.” This metaphor is directed to those that sin, and is used as a more blunt approach to those who do bad, than Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato approaches the topic of ignorance with ease and softness, using an epic metaphor to compare humans finding self-knowledge to those in a cave. Edwards uses many similes as well, but with a more aggressive impact. “And the fiery…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever heard a motivational speech and while it was going on you felt so motivated, but when it was over you did not know what to do with yourself? In Beyond Scared Straight, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," and "Can Kids Be Scared Straight?" all three authors try to persuade people to do the right things in a forceful tone, but there are reasons why appeals to fear is not the best motivational force. Some reasons why appeals to fear is not the best motivational force are that people might not get scared, are not afraid of the negative consequences, and do not want to nor know how to change.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edwards’ word choices present a contradiction, saying that people who have a relationship with God can still go to Hell because there is only God’s…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everywhere you look in the world today, there is always someone trying to persuade you to do something. While watching the television every commercial is sixty seconds of pure persuasion. You can read them in the newspaper. Even while driving on the interstate there are huge billboards that grab your attention to whatever they are advertising. People literally knock on your door trying to persuade you to switch to their religion. The goal of the persuasion is mutual, but the persuasions techniques may differ. The techniques that one uses can depend on many things. For example, the technique a speaker chooses, might depend on your audience or the occasion. In Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God”, Edwards uses three main persuasive techniques which are, connections to reality, his vivid description, and fear of the unknown.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I found "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" written by Jonathan Edwards as a terrible misconception. From the things I've learned through my own faith and Theology classes I've taken God is nothing like the god that Edwards portrays. Edwards's god is one of destruction and hatred. Where as the true God is full of love and compassion for his children. This sermon suggests that God is ready at any moment to condemn man to Hell. In Theology however we learned that God does not choose to send anyone to Hell, rather it is our sin that condemn us to this destiny. Edwards fills his sermon with scripture in an attempt to solidify his beliefs. However upon closer examination these quotes are bits and pieces of the complete text. These instances…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” was preached by Jonathan Edwards during a time when the people were relying on science more than their saviour in heaven, a time when people were lacking in their spiritual needs. This speech opened the eyes of many, and was so powerful it may very well have been the trigger of the great awakening. But why was this speech so powerful? Why did this speech change the lives of thousands? As we can see he used plenty of persuasive techniques, he is very descriptive in his imagery and uses simple metaphors to persuade thousands to repent of their sinful ways and turn to Christ. He planted fear and guilt into their hearts. This sermon is a sermon full of anger and fright, a sermon powerful enough to make the strongest man cry and weep. But the true purpose of this sermon was to bring hope to a nation in need. It ultimately was a message of redemption, a message that Jonathan Edwards believed people needed to hear.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Sermon “Sinners in the hand of an Angry God” given by Jonathan Edwards, the persuasion techniques logos, ethos, and pathos are displayed. To start off, the persuasion technique logos is used in Edward’s sermon when he talks about being burned in hell. In the sermon Edwards says, “So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell…” Logos uses logic to persuade people. Edwards tries to show people that pain is inevitable if they’re a sinner, and it’s simple logic that people don’t want to be lifted over hell. This scares people from sinning. Moreover, ethos is displayed in the sermon with Edward’s authority figure. Ethos uses authority to persuade people. Edwards is a pastor, so with his position people are more liking to follow his beliefs. Other people may not be taken as serious as Edwards. This helps Edwards in his goal. Furthermore, pathos is expressed in the sermon when Edwards talks with intensity and lets out his emotions. For example, Edwards says in the sermon, “It is everlasting wrath.” The italicized everlasting shows how much emphasis he uses on this word. He really tried to pour out his emotions into this sermon. Emotions are what pathos uses to persuade. This technique can be very effective for Edward’s because it can get emotions to influence his audience. To conclude, persuasive techniques can convince people of beliefs as shown in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”; these techniques are still used today in advertisements, propaganda, speeches, and etc. to convince people of beliefs.…

    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonathan Edwards uses fear from suffering in oblivion to persuade his readers to join the lord in order to be saved from it. The author uses metaphors to make the reader picture that terrible place to convert irreligious readers.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edwards uses frightening imagery to make the puritans scared of what is to come if they continue being unfaithful to God. Striking the cord of a personal sin, “justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow” giving God the power to take away ones life in a second. Edwards’s scares the puritans by using imagery that relates to them, knowing that they have watched people of their kind be shot by a Native American with an arrow when they first came to the New World. Edwards uses individual imagery to make the puritans think he is speaking…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    individualism is “a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control”. what this means is that the individual has control over what goes on in the society rather than a government or any one force controlling what the individual does, individualism could be shown in many different forms. examples of different forms individualism could be shown is through the way you dress, your moral beliefs, or even your actions.Individualism is shown through romantic, revolutionary, and colonial text in Sinners in the hands of an angry god, speech to Virginia conviction, and self reliance…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is sermon that deals with the concept of wrath. Edwards states that at any moment men will be sent down to hell and they should be living in peril because, “As he that walks in slippery places is every moment is liable to fall” (Edwards 430). The only reason why they are not in hell yet is because, “God’s appointed time is not come” (Edwards 430). It is God’s judgement that casts men into hell at any moment. These statements instill a sense of fear into the audience. Edwards…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays