The Great Awakening:
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God”
Rev. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
The Great Awakening
•
What historians call "the first Great
Awakening" can best be described as a
revitalization of religious piety that swept
through the American colonies between
the 1730s and the 1770s.
•
In emotionally charged sermons, all the
more powerful because they were
delivered extemporaneously, preachers
like Jonathan Edwards evoked vivid,
terrifying images of the utter corruption
of human nature and the terrors awaiting
the unrepentant in hell.
•
Hence Edwards's famous description of
the sinner as a loathsome spider
suspended by a slender thread over a pit
of seething brimstone in his best known
sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God."
The Great Awakening
• When Jonathan Edwards delivered a sermon,
with its fiery descriptions of hell and eternal
damnation, people listened.
• Edwards believed that religion should be
rooted in emotion rather than reason.
• Edwards is recognized today as a masterful
preacher.
– In fact, he is considered by many to be America’s
GREATEST religious thinker.
A Spiritual Calling
• Born in East Windsor,
Connecticut
• Edwards was a child
prodigy and entered what
is now Yale University at
the age of 12
• In 1772, after finishing his
education, Edwards
followed the path of his
father and grandfather
and became a Puritan
Minister.
Religious Revivalist
• Edwards soon became an effective preacher.
• In 1734 and 173, he delivered a series of sermons
that resulted in a great number of conversions.
• Edward’s sermons helped trigger the Great
Awakening.
• Delivered during the height of The Great
Awakening, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God” is the most famous of Edward’s nearly 1,200
sermons.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God”
• The “natural men” he was trying to reach with his
sermon were those in the congregation who had not
been “born again.”
– They had not accepted Jesus as their savior.
– Edward’s sermon had a powerful effect
– Several times he had to ask his shrieking and fainting
audience for quiet.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God” Literary Terms
• Figures of speech
– Metaphors, similes, personification
• Rhetorical Devices
– Parallelism – repetition of words or phrases that
have similar grammatical structure
– Repetition
– Analogy and imagery
Literary Analysis: Sermon
• A Sermon is a form of religious persuasion in
which a speaker exhorts listeners to behave in
a more spiritual and moral fashion. They are
usually shaped by:
1. Purpose: Why Edward’s delivers the sermon
2. Audience: Whom Edward’s is addressing
3. Context: When and Where Edwards delivers the
sermon
Edwards’ Purpose
• To strike fear into the listeners in order to
convince them that they need to live a life of
humility and righteousness.
Edwards’ Message
• You are all in hell, but God is keeping you out
by his grace
• God can abandon you whenever he wants
• Become reborn in Christ so that you can be
rescued
Analyzing Persuasive Techniques: Logical,
Ethical, and Emotional Appeals
1.
2.
3.
Logical Appeal: Appeals to your sense of logic. These appeals rely on
logic and facts, appealing to your reasoning or intellect rather than to
your values or emotions.
Ethical Appeal: Appeals to your sense of ethics. These appeals establish
a writers credibility and trustworthiness with an audience. When a
writer links a claim to a widely accepted value, for example, the writer
not only gains moral support for that claim but also establishes a
connection with readers.
Emotional Appeal: Appeals to your emotions. These messages are
designed to persuade an audience by creating strong feelings rather than
by providing facts and evidence. Writers often use tone, imagery, and
figurative language to make these types of emotional appeals.
–
–
–
appeal to fear, which taps into your fear of losing your safety and security
appeal to pity, which takes advantage of your sympathy and compassion for
others.
appeal to vanity, which relies on your desire to feel good about yourself.
Discussion/Analysis
• Identify his rhetorical devices and use of
imagery
• How does Edwards see God? What does he
mean by “men are held in the hand of God”?
How do you escape God’s anger?
• How do we view God today?
• How would Edwards have viewed a national
tragedy, such as September 11?