Jonathan Edwards - Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God

Biography

Jonathan Edwards - 1703-1758

Puritan minister in New England

Major figure in the Great Awakening, religious revival movement that started in 1734

He held the sermons in a calm and monotonous way even though it is the opposite of the content of his sermons

Sermon

The sermon is a performative type of religious literature —> the leader of a congregation, the minister, addresses the congregation during communal worship

The sermon is central to protestant Church service in general and Puritan services in particular

Structure of a sermon

Starts off with a quotation from Bible or doctrine that is expounded

Its argumentative, also in its structure giving reasons

It has a didactic purpose, the application: inspire everyone to a form of moral behavior that pleases God

It is a fire- and-brimstone sermon: fire-and-brimstone sermons appear also to the emotions of the listeners by evoking their fear

General facts

Is one of Edwards’s most famous sermons

It is a fire-and-brimstone sermon and starts off Wirth a quote from the Bible

Throughout the text he directly and indirectly refers to the Bible, knowing/taking for granted that his audience knows the Bible as good as he does

The sermon’s logical structure is indicated by the numerical order

The basis for all his arguments is the Bible

Quotes

Application: this section makes the parallel to the ancient Israelites explicit

He starts with a quote from the Bible “Their foot shall slide in due time” (5 Mos 32, 35) and builds his argument from there

“The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God” (197).

“The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course when once it is let loose” (198)

Explanation

—> the sinner’s situation is precarious because God is to drop him/her into hell. This is a metaphor for indicating that people will suffer eternal damnation and not go to heaven if they do not repent (Buße tun)

Explanation

--> All the key words “awakening”, “brimstone”, and fire (“glowing flames”) are found in this text. The preacher exhorts his audience to turn to God. Fire is the negative force that will kill all who are not ready to be saved by Christ.

Explanation

---> God has power over all nature. His might encompasses all things. He controls both the natural elements of water and fire. In Christian belief, water is of significance and often connected with the benevolent power of God, as for instance in baptism. Here, Edwards warns of the devastating effect that water can also have, e.g. in the flood that destroyed the world.

His view on God

God has power over all nature. His might encompasses all things. He controls both the natural elements of water and fire. In Christian belief, water is of significance and often connected with the benevolent power of God, as for instance in baptism. Here, Edwards warns of the devastating effect that water can also have, e.g. in the flood that destroyed the world.

God also reigns over Satan, not only over the humans

god is very powerful, but not only in a "good" way --> angry God --> wrath of God shows 2 sides of God and it depends on oneself which is shown

Style

uses more stylistic devices than usual —> p. 198 "flootgage" --> p. 195 souls of the sinners as the "seeds of hellfire”

Uses the personal pronoun “you” —> directly addresses the audience and reader

Partly plain style, but with imagery —> so not completely plain style

The imagery has the effect of evoking fear and describing visually what the hell might look like

Uses parallelisms —> typical Puritan

Didactic purpose of his sermon

spreading fear --> warns that even if you think that you are "safe", you might go into hell

Fire and brimstone sermon

The main purpose is Gods salvation