Edwards Relationship With God

Jonathan Edwards’ memorable sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, was first delivered in 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut during the peak of New England’s first Great Awakening. When he delivered this sermon with horrid descriptions of hell, the congregation listened. It left a dramatic effect on the listeners leaving them weeping, and some even considering suicide! Jonathan Edwards conveyed his message to turn their lives back to religion and repent to their god by his use of tone, emotional appeal, and imagery.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is widely recognized as one of America’s most profound Theologians. Some might even consider him the master of Puritan revival, since he was the leader of the Great Awakening. During his time he was a devout Calvinist who had the power of single-handedly keeping the Puritan faith strong for over twenty-five years, by using vivid imagery to provoke his audience. Edward's dialect was exquisitely influential and yet wielded with class and ease. This essay argues that Edwards was a prestigious theologian in his time that helped shape modern religious culture.

As many religious leaders before and after him, Edwards's source of inspiration and guidance is the Bible. His understanding of this cornerstone of New England society enables him to reinforce a persuasive dissertation with biblical quotes and passages; however, not all the quotes cited by

Jonathan Edwards, a Congregationalist minister in western Massachusetts, who was shocked at the dissipating religious spirit, believing that people were giving up to sinful pleasures. He worked against the secularization of the Enlightenment and focus on pushing the emotional side of religion by expressing the wonderful nature of Heaven and the horror of Hell, helping to renew intensity behind religion. This idea of Heaven and Hell was stated in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, intended to scare people into looking for salvation, with descriptions of people being held over a fire in Hell. This is expressive of the change of social norms in Puritan New England, where going to the Minister’s house as opposed to the Tavern was acceptable. This also shows the more individualized ideals people had, for they were presented with the option of achieving their own salvation and take responsibility for their lives, having the option of maintaining a personal connection with God. (ch 3 txtbk)

Puritans believe God has an influence on humans in our daily life. Edwards asserts, “His mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction” (81). This quote explains to us that God’s forgiveness holds us from, at any second, dropping down into the deep depths of hell. God observes our life and helps us every step of the way by pushing us as much as he can in the right direction. Edwards believes, “And yet it is nothing but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment” (81). Edwards for the second time says something relatively about God’s hand and how He is the one who holds us and keeps us out of the fiery pits. This quote shows us how God’s pleasure keeps us from falling into a

Edwards’s intense, persuasive technique was very effective in guiding non-believers back into religion. It also helped the Puritans that were not swayed by the reform advancements to stay engaged in God and willing to spread His word. His persuasive technique proves to be effective when his audience, authority and reason are considered. Puritans were “member[s] of a group of Protestants that arose in the sixteenth century within the Church of England, demanding the simplification of doctrine and worship, and greater strictness in religious discipline” (Collins English Dictionary). Because of their adamancy about reforms, Puritans were more likely to be open to new ideas. Subsequently, Edwards’ directed the sermon

Between Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, written by Jonathan Edwards, and The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, Edwards made the strongest argument in his literary work compared to Jefferson. Edwards had incorporated a strong use of pathos, ethos, and logos. Jefferson used the same technique as well, but his use of it did not speak out to me as a reader. In the upcoming paragraphs, you will see Edwards’ use of pathos, ethos, and logos.

Religion and politics often times should not mix, and for the Puritan communities suffered a great amount from this. A preacher named Jonathan Edwards would give sermons that drove fear into listeners. His sermons were noted as “employing vivid imagery as a means of releasing the power of sensory psychology and, thereby, forcing his listeners to move from known and familiar conceptions to the sensory experiencing of otherworldly events” (White). By doing this the people who listened and followed his messages would become terrified, therefore causing “believers to welcome the joyful liberation of conversionary love.” (White) However, even though Edwards had a large influence in the Puritan system, his extreme rhetoric was not uncommon for religious

Jonathan Edwards was one of the most famed evangelical preachers in the Age of the Great Awakening. He is best known for his most impactful sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards preached with fury and conviction of the All Great our God. He preached for the wanderers; those lost in their spiritual belief. Edwards uses a wide variety of figurative language and rhetorical techniques to urge unregenerate Christians to sanctify their lives and walk devoutly before God, using fear. During this time of recognition, renewal and self-reliance in one’s connection with God, Edwards’ sermon did nothing but illustrate the exact conception of the age of the Great Awakening.

The Puritans lived a very strict, religious lifestyle. They believed that God worked in their daily lives. In a response to the Age of Enlightenment and people straying from the church, the Great Awakening began. A revitalization of religious piety swept through the colonies. Preachers taught that the people of the church were to trust their hearts over their minds and rely on biblical revelation, rather than human reason. One very memorable preacher is Jonathan Edwards, whose use of imagery encourages congregants to return to the church, especially in his best known sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

Edwards was now in charge of taking his grandfather’s place, being the minister of the largest and wealthiest churches in the entire colony. As a minister, he held to the complementarian outlook of marriage and gender roles, along with all the Reformers and Puritans of his time. He published his first sermon in 1731 entitled God Glorified in the Work of Redemption, by the Greatness of Man’s Dependence upon Him, In the Whole of It. In this sermon, it is clear that Edwards is blaming New England’s incorrect morals on their assumptions of religious and moral self-sufficiency. In the lecture, he discussed many topics. The emphasis being on “God’s absolute sovereignty in the work of salvation: that while it behooved God to create man pure and without sin, it was of his good pleasure and mere and arbitrary grace for him to grant any person the faith necessary to incline him or her toward holiness, and that God might deny this grace without any disparagement to any of his character.” This sermon was Edward’s first public attack on Arminianism. This brought up controversial thoughts, but also helped Edwards in becoming a key figure in the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and

Johnathan Edwards was a fourth generation puritan minister, and an influential of puritan leader. During the initial

In order to fully understand why Jonathan Edwards expresses concern among the other Puritans, one must first fathom what an extreme Puritan is. During the American Revolution in the 1750’s, Jonathan Edwards, an extreme Puritan, believed that no matter what anyone did, they were still considered sinners who will eventually end up in hell. He went on to tell every Puritan that their path is straight to hell unless they join him and become an extreme Puritan. Although people attended church on Sundays, Edwards still expressed anger towards the Puritans. Obviously, an extreme Puritan like Edwards, imperative the rest of the population to follow the rules of the government in order to receive the gift of going to heaven.