Rhetorical Analysis Of Jonathan Edwards

Jonathon Edwards maintains his audience’s attention by creating intense and meaningful similes. Edwards uses these similes as a way for his audience to understand the points he is making and adds dramatic imagery and piercing words to get the audience to consider what he is saying. The first simile he uses says this, “…they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall” (Edwards 1). Edwards includes this quote in his sermon to provoke the readers thought. The point he is trying to make is that God’s people are exposed to destruction which is a hard to imagine so he breaks it down for his audience by saying that just as they are exposed to destruction if you walk in a slippery place you will also fall. The next memorable simile Edwards uses says this, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire…” (6). Here Edwards compares his congregation to a “loathsome insect”. Edwards does this to try and describe how God views them. He continues his claim by comparing God’s wrath on them burning like fire, which would probably spark fear in the hearts of the people that they may repent. This simile helped further Edward’s main point, that hell is inevitable. One last simile Edwards uses is this, “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards

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.

Jonathan Edwards, a famous preacher in pre-colonial times, composed a sermon that was driven to alert and inject neo Puritanical fear into an eighteenth century congregation. This Bible based and serious audience sought after religious instruction and enlightenment. Through the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards offers a very harsh interpretation to humankind. Edwards utilizes various rhetorical techniques to evoke an emotional response in his audience and to persuade the members of his congregation that their wicked actions will awaken a very ruthless and merciless God.

Jonathan Edwards, a negative and realistic man, focused on how God is a judgemental god and sinners will be put to a painful death, they should be fearful. He says in the first few lines of his speech, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, “So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit.” (Edwards, Pg. 23) Edwards implies that everyone deserves to be in hell and he goes on to say that God is an angry God and that no one had done anything to try to ease His anger. Edwards also played a large role in the Great Awakening. He wanted people to experience Christianity in an intense and emotional way. In his speech, he said, “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell.” (Edwards, Pg. 26) Edward’s speech was opportunity knocking at everyone’s doors. He influenced people to want to be saved in a way that made many fearful of what could happen to them if they weren’t saved or a child of God. Edwards believed that God set the world in motion, but was not active in everyone’s life. Edwards believed that God created the world and

On July 8th 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in Enfield, Connecticut. Edwards states to his listeners that God does not lack in power, and that people have yet not fallen to destruction because his mercy. God is so forgiving that he gives his people an opportunity to repent and change their ways before it was too late. Edwards urges that the possibility of damnation is immanent. Also that it urgently requires the considerations of the sinner before time runs out. He does not only preach about the ways that make God so omnipotent, but the ways that he is more superior to us. In his sermon, Edwards uses strong, powerful, and influential words to clearly point out his message that we must amend

Edwards compares man and his righteousness to insects to demonstrate the unworthiness and insignificance of man. “The God that holds you over the pits of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked:”. In this imagery, Edwards tells how the only thing keeping humanity from Hell is God holding them in His hand. However, God’s wrath is also depicted, as Edwards describes God holding them as if they were loathsome bugs or spiders. This emphasizes the huge size of God’s wrath, as generally people do not like bugs and would gladly throw them in fire. This stresses the dangerous situation humanity is in, saying that they are all hanging by a string over Hell and would cause the audience to repent and seek salvation. “… all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of Hell, than a spider's

In using these metaphors, Edwards is enabling the reader(s) to understand the tone by putting it in a situation and context, which is more easily correlated. Subsequently, he uses imagery in the opening paragraph stating that when men are on Gods’ hands and they could descend to hell. Natural men are held in the hands of God, over the pit of hell knowing that you might descend into the abyss at any moment should scare you. God chose to save you until he wants to let you slope into an eternity of sweltering flames.

Olaudah Equiano’s “From the Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano” is written with the intent of ending the slave trade and aiding the abolitionists’ movement. His narrative tells his personal story of kidnapping, being sold into slavery and his experience in the middle passage. According to this account Olaudah Equiano grew up in Africa with a large family. He was captured and sold into slavery at age eleven. As an adult he became an opposing voice to slavery. This autobiography was published in Britain, with the help of abolitionists. This gives a purpose to Equiano’s writing and the purpose is shown throughout the text as Equiano tries to expose the evil of the slave trade.

Jonathan Edwards begin with his sermon, implying that hell is a bad place to be chosen to go and being feared by it. Edwards asserts, “...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; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out…”(Edwards, Para.1). Edwards begins to give negative connotations of hell. It states how hell is wide open for the audience and it also would like the pleasure to hold onto them. He continues to show how they would be swallowed up by flames and fire. And how the fire is struggling to break out and get them to burn or torture them. This gives the people, the congregation, the negative impression and vibe of them once leaving to their afterlife they will be going to hell. He uses the devil as a threat to them so they will fear hell and all the horrible things waiting for them. This means that Edwards tries to scare them off. Jonathan Edwards believes that in order to manipulate them, he must include fear in his writing to make sure his listeners/ readers obey god. Because this whole sermon is basically warning his congregation that they must repent from their sinful ways. That they must turn to god for forgiveness before everything is

The purpose of glittering sword was to show a sharp type of pain hanging you from God's

some ethos to emphasize the amount of hope he feels for sinners to converge to Christianity,

How do people in power influence society ?To influence means to have an affect on character,development, or behavior of someone or something. People in position of power use Rhetorical techniques in the process in trying to influence their audience. Sharing their opinion about a situation can affect a person in different ways ,by the person in power appealing to logic and emotions. Affects an individual’s character and also can have an large impact emotionally,mentally, and physically. Using these tools really all to persuade a person to feel what their feeling and see their side. It could be to help a person or shape an individual in astonishing way.

This way, we will believe that we will always stay with our loved ones that continue to live on. And if we did the good things we were meant to do, we would be given the right to permanently live in that infinite state. Just like that, we have a great thing to look up to and have no reason to fear it. However, the Puritans have come to believe that the good things you were meant to do won’t do you any good, because God’s will is random and unpredictable. It seems unfair to anybody, and makes death more scary than it should be. Without being able to tell if you will go to Heaven or Hell, people then and there would be scared because the outcome is unknown. They can only gamble with God, hoping that they get the better outcome. He gave them the idea that their God was angry with them and if they did not convert to Puritanism there would be no escaping hell or God's wrath. Throughout this long sermon there are numerous instances in which Edwards describes God as merciless or when he explains that death is coming and no matter what one does, hell is inevitable. Jonathan Edwards's most effective technique was by far his use of implanting fear into his audience's mind. Edwards says That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not

To make his audience feel fearful, Jonathan Edwards uses strong diction, metaphors, and imagery to get unsaved puritans and sinners to accept God and ask for forgiveness so as not to spend an eternity in hell. In the phrase “cut them off”, Jonathan uses diction to ultimately make his point sound harsh and cold. Rather than him saying that God won’t have mercy on the sinners, he states that God will cut them off as if though they meant nothing. His purpose is to say that God knows that they are sinning and being wicked and in a moments notice, he could just end their life.

After the immediate conversion sentiments, one knew that they were God’s elect if they perceived God’s workings in their lives in Great Awakening ideals. As Jonathan Huggins explains in “Jonathan Edwards and Justification,” “Edwards regarded the gift of the Spirit as an ‘infusion’ of a new principle of holiness” in which others could perceive that Spirit through the actions of the person and also the benevolent signs from God to the holy person (148). For example in Jonathan Edward’s “Religious Affections,” Edwards lists specific people from the Bible where others could discern the presence of God through the presence of events in their lives (13). To further explain, Edwards mentions John as the most desired by Christ, evident through his presence at the transfiguration and his honor of writing the last book in the Bible, living the longest of any disciple (14). Generally, Great Awakening music took Edwards’s concept and assumed it with the average believer, dictating that believers could understand the word of God, offer interpretations, or even tangible manifestations such as longevity or even financial blessings. For example, the hymn “Am I a Soldier of the Cross” by Watts delineates that believers will be enable by God to fulfill a Christian’s duty and that God will provide them with an understanding of scripture: