Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Rhetorical Analysis

Decent Essays
Danielle Safo
Ms. Hanson
AP Lang
15 Oct 2015
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards persuadably preached a sermon to the members of the congregation to instill fear in those sinners by informing them that if they don't change their ways, they will endure the "wrath of God." Edwards used his creditability as a pastor to give legitimacy to his message and long sentence structures to describe hell and eternal damnation. To begin his sermon, Edwards used complex sentence structure which created a scary and petrifying description of what hell would be like for his audience. This made the audience pay more attention and terrify them into believing they will be going to hell. For example when he said "...the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Passage Analysis Hell in a Handbag strikes me as an interesting name for a story. The author, Mr. Hall, used various tones, diction, syntax and imagery to tell the story. The tone in the passage starts off very happy and excited as the main character is dreaming of his fantasy of winning an Oscar. However, after he wakes up the tone shifts to disappointment and unhappiness.…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Often in sermans ministers pastors persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or moral fashion. Such is the case in “sinner in the hands of an angry god” by Jonathon Edwards where he illustrated that the moral of the story is “if sinners repent, they won’t face the wrath of god” Edward using an convincing tone and wanted to have an impact on his audience by appealing to their fears, pity and Varity. Edward had an impact on his puritan’s audience because of convincing tone, clear imagery and clear figurative language. Foremost Edward is trying to show his audience to be cautionary of after life and that god can easily destroy his sinners who have done wrong and did not repent. For example in the text the author stated “so that thus it is that natural me held in …..…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many ways that people in positions of power influence society. Whether it’s someone who is a preacher like Jonathan Edwards that influence the behavior of their congregation, or sSomeone like Patrick Henry who used his position of wealth in Virginia to preach the idea of liberty from Britain in Colonial America. They all seem to have one thing in common, they all use rhetoric in some shape or form in their orations to their audiences. How Jonathan Edwards used rhetoric used was he heavily relied on pathos to influence the people in his church to stop sinning and start repenting. He said things like “You hang by a slender thread with flames of divine wrath flashing about it and ready every moment to burn it asunder.”…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Edwards’s sermon, Sinner’s in the Hands of an Angry God was written during the era of increasing religious philosophies. It exposes biblical practices such as the equality of all men and the principle of supreme rights bestowed by their Creator. Edwards’ sermon is a literary example of preaching style during the Great Awakening, where numerous pastors read their sermons. In his sermon, Edward invites his congregation to repent of their sins that will warrant the wrath of an angry God into notice.…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Johnathan Edwards was a Christian preacher and theologian. Edwards was born on October 5, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut, and he received his master's degree from Yale in 1722. He apprenticed for his grandfather for two years before he became the sole preacher of the Northampton, Massachusetts parish in 1729. Edwards "is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). In his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Jonathan Edwards is able to successfully use metaphors to describe to those in his congregation the consequences of not following the path of God and provides sufficient reason for sinners to repent that are still effective to this day.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” During the Great Awakening, Johnathan Edwards rose greatly in popularity due to his powerful and menacing sermons that shook audiences and provided new views on the Christian religion. His most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” expresses his belief that God is spiteful and full of rage, and will condemn any sinners to an eternal torture in hell. He depicts God as solely torturous and wanting only to punish those who have done wrong, thus appealing to fear and providing motivation to escape the wraths of God’s persecution by finding new faith in Christianity. This method of focusing on punishment and then subsequent ways to escape it while inciting fear is unnecessary and wrong in its…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edwards was a man who believed instilling fear was a helpful tactic to use. Although some may believe placing fear in people to praise God is bad, some do not. In Edwards sermon he believed fear was a good tactic to use, he instilled fear into his congregation by saying how hell is a real place, "it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide bottomless pit," (Edwards 124). Edwards…

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout this sermon he was hoping to encourage other people to embrace the teachings and ways of Jesus Christ unless they wanted to be known as nonbelievers and sent to hell ("Jonathan Edwards." Bio.com). Jonathan was seen as emotional and as a judgmental revivalist even though he preached about hell in dispassionate ways (“Jonathan Edwards." Christian History). Jonathan preached just as much about the joys to come in heaven than the fear lingering behind the idea of hell, if not more frequently. Jonathan’s goal was not to scare his listeners, rather just warn them about the dangers associated with hell ("Jonathan Edwards: A Brief, Storied Life.")…

    • 1623 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Edwards also reveals his emotion through his sermon as he conveys an angry tone, “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 God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell.” (pg. 156) In this quotation, he utilizes an angry tone with the words “furnace”, “wrath” and “damned” and gave fear to the Puritans and made them to convert back to Puritanism.…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the House of the Lord, a man appears to be walking down the aisle to arrive at the pulpit to serve as the connoisseur of the Bible. He wears a long black trench coat and sets down his notes on the podium. He stares out onto his followers and beings reading in a monotone voice. Although people should be uninterested in this man, he captures their attention. He entrances his audience.…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan theologian who was a primary figure during the Great Awakening. Edwards delivered his fiery sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to his puritan congregation in 1741 using powerful images of heaven and hell and a sense of urgency to convince sinners to come to Christ. To achieve his desired purpose of urging sinners to receive God’s grace before it is too late, Edwards employs ethos, logos, and pathos. Edwards uses ethos to appeal to his congregation to convince them to turn from their wicked ways.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Old Light Vs New Light

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Edwards began preaching his religious experience as a “New Light” in viewing sin and penance to reach heaven in 1731 Massachusetts, but his most notable sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was delivered at a 1741 revival meeting in Connecticut. After viewing the full text of the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, that I referenced, it is evident that many Americans are inspired by fear. Edward’s sermon obviously fits in all of the revival meetings that were going on during the Great Awakening. Edward was known for appealing to the audience on an emotional level during his sermons such as when he once depicted what hell would be like for sinners who did not seek atonement which would leave his listeners feeling…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    They utilize God’s name to instill fear and are told that “God’s hand has held [them] up” (Edwards 154). Equivalent to this conflict, in Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God, he depicts his belief that man is only enlightened when he is with God. He passionately exclaims, “The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart..” (Edwards 154). Edwards makes use of metaphors to instill fear that God’s punishment is worse than Hell itself.…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1700s, during the Great Awakening hundreds of people were accepting Jesus Christ and becoming born again. During this time, pastors were working to increase this number and convert more and more people. One of these pastors was Jonathan Edwards, who gave intensely persuasive sermons. In one of Edwards’s most famous sermons "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he utilizes rhetorical appeals: pathos, to appeal to the congregation’s fear; logos, to appeal to congregation’s common sense and logic; and ethos to gain the congregation’s trust throughout his sermon to assist him in persuading the congregation to become born again. Through his fire and brimstone teachings, Edwards evokes an immense amount of fear in his listeners.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Christians were constantly reminded of the consequences of sinning during the Great Awakening. However one church in Enfield, Connecticut was largely unaffected. So they invited Johnathan Edwards, one of the most dynamic pastors of the time to speak. His mission was to convert, and convince the congregation of their sins. He accomplished this by delivering a compelling sermon that helped the congregation realize that they are going to be judged by God, and that this judgment will be more fearful and painful than they could imagine.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays