Rhetorical Analysis Of Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

Jonathan Edwards was a revivalist preacher, philosopher, and protestant theologian. He lived between the years of 1703 through to 1753. In the year 1741, Edwards made a speech to a crowd of puritans. Because Edwards wanted the puritans to stay puritan, he made a sermon called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and that scared them into coming back to their original religion. He scared them into becoming puritan again by using ethos, pathos, and logos.

In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards displays controversial viewpoints and ideas concerning heaven and hell. As Edwards speaks to the congregation he warns them of the misery and suffering they will face if they do not repent of certain sins. He also describes God as angry which probably struck fear into the hearts on many. To illustrate his own point that hell is unenviable without repentance Jonathan Edwards creates the idea of an angry God using intense similes, a harsh tone, and strong emotional appeal in “Sinners in the hand of an Angry God”.

Imagine you are a Puritan, it is the Great Awakening, and one of the most well-known preachers of the time is telling you that there is a good chance you are going to hell. Without some serious skills in persuasion, this statement wouldn’t mean anything. Jonathan Edwards ' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" speech was extremely effective in persuading the Puritans to take their religious beliefs more seriously due to his use of many rhetorical devices such as: figures of speech, repetition and sound, syntax, and the triangle of rhetoric - ethos, pathos, and logos. The people were getting distracted by things other than religion

Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan minister, preached a sermon in 1741 titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” His sermon is about the punishments the evil people will receive after death. Edwards uses the emotion of fear through the power of his words along with many syntactic techniques to influence his listeners to turn to God and save their long term souls.

The ability to persuade the audience to think or act in a certain way is essential in

Respected Puritan minister, Jonathan Edwards in his Sermon, “Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God (1781), Elaborates on the negatives of being a repentant sinner. Edward’s goal is to inform people that sinning can be dangerous. He adopts a serious tone in order to establish a constant fear within Sinners and Non Sinners reading. Using the heavy caution within his readers let him establish a successful Sermon with the help of examples.

In the sermon “Sinners in the Hand of An Angry God”, Reverend Edwards uses the rhetorical appeals ethos, pathos, and logos to convince unbelievers to become born again in Christ. Reverend Edwards was known for capturing people’s attention with his intense sermons on hell and eternal damnation. His sermons contributed to “The Great Awakening” which was a religious movement in the 1700’s. He used rhetorical appeals in his sermons to reach out to unbelievers. These rhetorical appeals are what helped him to be so persuasive in his sermons. This sermon is one of the many he gave to his congregation.

In the works of Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” uses numerous persuasive techniques and biblical allusions. Edwards’ sermon lectures Puritans, people who strictly pursue to live by the bible, on how they are straying from the path of the bible. During his sermon, the Puritans were terrified of what he had said ,because every little sin each Puritan had committed they thought they were going to go to Hell. Edwards’ play on words, as well as his use of persuasive techniques, and biblical allusion convinced the Puritans that they were severely in trouble of going to Hell.

Jonathan Edwards, the author of “from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, uses syntactic techniques to accomplish his purpose of his intended audience, the “unconverted”. Edwards informs his “unconverted” audience that God is “angry” (Page 1 Line 8) with them, as it is repeated numerous times throughout the sermon. He also informs his audience on how to be unconverted and change to converted. Along with informing, Edwards also persuades his unconverted audience to become converted.

On July 8, 1741, in Enfield Connecticut, the speech Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, was delivered. The sermon was given by British Colonial Christian theologian Jonathan Edwards. His goal and purpose was to teach and warn people of the dangers of sins and the horrors of the afterlife. The speech was given at his own congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts to an unknown effect. Edwards had started The Great Awakening from his preaching. He was also a descendant of four generations of Puritan ministers and the most renowned and influential of Puritan Leaders. Edward began his sermon by saying "In this verse is threatened the Vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, that were God's visible People, and lived under Means of Grace: and that, notwithstanding all" He also states "Gods wonderful Works that he had wrought towards that People, yet remained, as is expressed."(ver. 28. Void of Counsels)

Often in Sermans writers persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or more fashion. Such is the case in Jonathan Edward’s “Sinner’s in the Hand of an Angry God” where he believes that sinners should change their ways and follow the Lord if they want happiness. Edwards wanted to impact his audience by appealing to their fears and pity. Edwards had a great impact on his Puritan audience because of his cautionary tone, dreadful imagery, and symbolic figurative language.

In the excerpt from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards, the only subject that is talked about is God and how basically how he either controls your life or has no part in it at all. By using rhetorical devices such as similes, metaphors, and personification as well as his own writing style, Edwards is able to convey to the reader how the pilgrims felt about the presence of God in their lives and how God could be other things than good at times.

Jonathan in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (July 8, 1741), claims that the unconverted are hanging from the hands of God, and can be dropped off to the eternity of hell, his sermon is used to make the sinners be afraid and understand how the power of God is saving them, but it is only for his pleasure, unless if they return to Christianity. Edwards strengths his argument by using metaphors and imagery of a wrathful God to make the unconverted people afraid of being sinners and encourage them to have a relationship with Christ to be fully saved from falling to an eternity in the flames of hell. Edwards purpose is to start his sermon with such powerful use of visualization to provide fear to the sinners and give them a

Well respected puritan minister, Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”(1741) tries to elucidate all the consequences that occur in the afterlife if you’re a sinner. Edwards purpose of this sermon is to address the Puritan society and congregation the repercussions that can come from being sinful. He formulates a desperate tone in order to reach his audiences internal conflicts with the Puritans and their sin. Edwards supports his claim by using logos, ethos, and pathos to appeal to the readers and for the audience in the story to betray sin.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, a speech given by Minister Jonathan Edwards, was delivered to install fear in the hearts of believers. Edwards gave the address on two separate occasions. The first time he delivered the sermon was to his own congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts, and then again on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 430). His effectiveness and credibility as a religious leader in New England during the eighteenth century is fixed in his extensive knowledge concerning the Bible, as well as a desire to awaken and save as many souls as possible. Edwards believed that without proper understanding of the total depravity of mankind, the Puritans would not turn away from their sin. In this renowned sermon, he preaches against nonbelievers, warning them of their imminent punishment from God, and stresses that God’s wrath is upon them and will destroy their entire being. Throughout the text, he uses vivid imagery to capture the intensity of God’s wrath and the physical existence of hell. With this method of writing, Edward invokes fear and hopelessness in his audience. However, some of the words and phrases used by Edwards to depict God can be interpreted in any number of ways. Destructionism refers to the “natural instability of language” (Brown, 108). Not only was the sermon seen as controversial at the time it was delivered, but many people also disagree with parts of it today. The majority of the sermon