Do Now
Think about a time you tried to change someone’s mind. Did you use a gentle approach, scare tactics, or something in between?
Have you ever persuaded someone to do something or share your same belief?
How did you do it? What was the outcome?

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God” by Jonathan Edwards

Background Information
• Important role in the shaping of The Great Awakening (1730-
1755(
• Grandfather of Aaron Burr
• Was the fifth of eleven children
• He entered Yale College in
1716, at just under the age of thirteen.
• He was a scholar-pastor his rule being thirteen hours of study a day.

The Great Awakening
In 1740 the well-known British evangelist
George Whitefield joined with Jonathan
Edwards to spark a religious revival that swept New England. The Great
Awakening was a backlash against what many believed was a church that had grown far too lenient.

Edwards preached a return to Calvinism which stressed predestination , the belief that only a select few chosen by God would be saved. No individual could earn grace by doing good deeds, so everyone was equally powerless to control their
own fate.

“Fire and Brimstone” tradition

Literary Elements
Metaphor – a figure of speech that compares or equates two seemingly unlike things. In contrast to a simile, a metaphor implies the comparison instead of stating it directly; hence there is no use of connectives such as like or as .

Literary Elements
Imagery – The “word pictures” that writers create to evoke an emotional response.
In creating effective images, writers use
sensory details.

Literary Elements
Repetition – The recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, lines, or stanzas in a speech or piece of writing.
Repetition increases the sense of unity in a work and can call attention to particular ideas.

Literary Elements
Sensory details – Evocative words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste.

Religion in the Colonies
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luCyq zzV0MU

Analyze the Title
Sinners in the
Hands of an
Angry God

Analyze the Title
Sinners in the
Hands of an
Angry God

Analyze the Title
Sinners in the
Hands of an
Angry God

Analyze the Title
Sinners in the
Hands of an
Angry God

Cultural Note
As a Calvinist, Jonathan Edwards believed that some people were favored by God and others were not. This belief was interpreted by some to mean that worldly success was a sign of God’s favor. Many believed that one way God rewarded people for their repentance and pious behavior was with earthly goods.
What is wrong with this assumption?

Visualize the Story
As you read, visualize the faces on the congregation as they listen to the speech.
How might they react?
Could their outward reactions tell how they are reacting inwardly?

Let’s Read!
Open to page 98

Exit Slip Sticky Note
• What distinctive characteristic do you remember from todays reading? What was the point of
Edwards' sermon?

“…indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it”

“…all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock.”

“The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of
God, and that of an angry
God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”
(p. 103)

Repetition
Edwards repeats the word nothing several times. What effect does this have?
It emphasizes that there is nothing the natural man can do to save himself.

Theme of the Selection?

Literary Elements: Imagery
Edward’s sermon is filled with images meant to frighten listeners into seeking God and avoiding hell.
1. What frightening images occur in the first two paragraphs? To what senses do they appeal?
Images of a fiery pit and lake of brimstone appeal to sight and touch.

Literary Elements: Imagery
2. What sensory details does Edwards include in the fourth paragraph? What effect does the imagery have on the reader?
The weight of sin will make the sinner fall. The images frighten and intimidate.

Literary Elements: Imagery
3. List five additional images in the sermon, each of which appeals to a different sense.
• Bow and arrow of God’s wrath
• Souls born again
• The sinner held over hell like a spider
• A sinner who is like a venomous serpent
• Hell as a great furnace

Interdisciplinary Activity: Art
Choose a passage from Edwards’s sermon that contains vivid imagery, such as his comparison of sinners to “the most hateful and venomous serpent.” Sketch the passage.