Narrative Essay On Edwards

Jonathan Edwards and Patrick Henry, use rhetorical devices/techniques to influence society, so that the point that they’re trying to get through comes directly towards them while using using the formats. Each rhetorical device was used while they preached towards the audience and congregation, but the most important one was pathos. Pathos is the direct focus being that they know that’s the easiest device(technique) to influence the audience on what’s being announced towards them.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1759) played a historic part in American Christianity as we know it today. He was a notorious religious figure during a time when Congregationalists were determined to adhere to the religious styles of old. His intellectual and theological reason, along with his fervent zeal fueled by the Holy Spirit, makes him one of the greatest evangelistic preachers and apologists of all time. His life, works, and sermons inspired other leaders to spread the gospel message and brought about life-altering revivals and conversions in those he reached.

Edwards had a vigorous relationship with God. He prayed 5 times a day, and often had “secret conversations with God (p403)” that lasted for hours. Edwards explored more with practices and personal connection with God, than the Puritans. Who referenced the Old and New Testament to validated statements, than with personal experience, which Edwards explicitly does. Edwards occasionally drifted away from God, especially at the beginning of college, but then reverted back to religious practices on his own terms. Oppositely, the Puritan followed a strict mandatory contract with God.

Throughout “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards uses multiple literary devices to disarm his listeners. One literary device he uses is hyperbole. He emphasizes and exaggerated God’s anger. He does this multiple times throughout the story. For example, he says “God is a great deal more angry” (124). Another literary device Edwards uses is allusion. He frequently alludes to the horrors of hell by referencing common terms to make the listener have a visual connection to hell. “The pit is prepared, the fire made ready” (126). This connects to his use of imagery. He incorporates imagery multiple times throughout his work to make it seem more dramatic. An example of this are the multiple times he describes hell throughout the story. Edward tries to make it sound as terrible and destructive as he can to instill fear into the reader.

In the early 18th century, there was an increased movement away from the church due to the encouragement to value logic and reason over faith in the church. This caused the faith in the church to become incredibly low. Going to church started to be a chore, and individuals would only go to receive the sermon, if at all. Upon seeing the overall state of religious faith, preachers began taking their sermons to the people by preaching in central areas and going from church to church throughout the colonies. This became known as the first Great Awakening. At the forefront of the Great Awakening were preachers that came from England who would use evangelism to bring their word to the religiously complacent population of the colonies. The most prominent of these preachers were Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. In other words, the first Great Awakening was an explosion in evangelical activity in the colonies.

According to the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards ', main purpose was to scare the audience and tell them that they are doomed to spend their lives suffering from God 's wrath in hell. His sermons were intended as a wake-up call for those who underplayed the majesty of a holy God and overemphasized their own worthiness as a decent, hard-working, successful citizens. Edwards believed strongly that only a genuine conversion experience should qualify a person for church membership. Jonathan Edwards did a good job of persuading sinners to renounce their sins and reconcile with themselves with God and their neighbor. For me the importance of the sermon was that the tragedy of the natural man 's rejection of God is to fall into "The Hands of an Angry God." He fiercely targets the “natural men” who are people who live their lives according to strictly natural impulses, desires and plans. Edwards tells his parishioners that they only reason they are alive and the only reason they woke up this morning is because God allowed them to.

Johnathon Edwards was born on October 5, 1703 to Timothy and Esther Edwards. Timothy Edwards was the pastor of church at East Windsor, Connecticut, while Esther was the pastor of the church at Northampton, Massachusetts. Johnathon grew up in a rather strange environment, being the only son of eleven children. Throughout his childhood, Johnathon was trained and getting prepared for a college level education. In 1716, at an astounding age of just under thirteen, Johnathon began his studies by attending Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Puritans were a group of religious people who sailed to the new world in the early 17th century to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans left Europe in hope to purify the Church of England, and to reestablish a society with firm beliefs in hard work, self-discipline, and devotion to God. The beliefs of the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony remain firm until the Great Awakening almost a century later. The Great Awakening was a revival of religion in the New World that instructed people to let their heart put their faith in God. The revival spread across the colonies through a series of powerful sermons that attacked the emotions of congregants.

With the prevalent thought engine of Calvinism during this time, Jonathan Edwards delivers an important sermon to his congregation. He presents to his followers the “extraordinary opportunity” that they have in front of them at the present moment. He maintains a close relationship with Christianity and the Bible’s words throughout the speech to strengthen his ties with the belief system of the Puritans. This gives him the opportunity to use persuasive tactics to urge his audience towards following God to heaven. Jonathan Edwards utilizes strong Christian references, and dramatic diction to grab his listeners attention and make them realize the significance of his sermon as he sternly explains to his congregation God’s power and why people of God should be compassionate in their life.

The age of colonization formulated new issues for the people and nations of the world, particularly the question of nationalistic identity. As immigrants from various backgrounds poured into the newly discovered continents, they had address the issue with creating a society for their own while considering the native population and their ties to their homelands. Many of the original American colonies were established depending on religious lines, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, etc., and, consequently, their societies were largely based on beliefs and practices of their particular religious sect. For the most part, the respective areas settled into their systems and experienced religious harmony within their colonies.

To determine how effective a piece is, one must look to the effect on the audience. Effectiveness is not only how convincing the argument is, but also the longevity of that effect. In terms of influence, both the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. contributed to major religious and political movements of their times. Jonathan Edwards, a well-educated and respected Puritan preacher, contrived the peak of the Great Awakening--a movement in the 1740s toward old, pious Puritan ways. He brought the raw fear of God back to the communities of colonial America. Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr., a minister and civil rights leader, spurned the nonviolent civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He challenged the deeply embedded roots of segregation within the southern white community and especially called out eight members of the Birmingham clergy for not supporting fellow Christians in the nonviolent protest for civil rights. Both Edwards and King alike use specific figures of speech to evoke emotion in their audiences; however, they differ in their utilization and intended effect of their strategies.

Jonathan Edwards, A puritan minister delivers a very powerful and life changing sermon to his congregation in Enfield, Connecticut. His most successful appeal is Man’s emotion, by creating vivid, horrific images with negative connotations to emphasize the importance of sinners, unconverted men, and parishioners to convert to puritan beliefs.

Edwards breaks down the sermon by providing lists that separate the main topic (that all sinners will eventually go to hell) into smaller topics, like how the can go to hell with no notice, they deserve to go to hell, etc.

Jonathan Edwards, preacher and philosopher, who becomes widely known for his blazing sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which appealed parishioners to embrace the doctrines of Jesus Christ before they were expelled to hell as nonbelievers. His religious spirit we can explain with growing up in the very religious family: Edwards’ father was pastor of the church; his mother was a daughter of a pastor. J. Edwards also worked as a pastor in several churches.

“It would have to come from her, he felt, the desire to be found. He believed he wanted to find her. He believed that once he did--once he could fix things--he would be able to tell Norah the truth”(144).