Ethos Logos

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon written by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a theologian and philosopher in the British Colonies of America. He was raised as a puritan in Connecticut and grew up to be one of America’s most influential protestant revivalists of that time. He delivered many sermons, the most well-known being “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards gave this sermon on July 8, 1741 in Northampton, Massachusetts. The main purpose of this sermon was to convey to the audience the reality of hell, the need to change their wicked lives, and, ultimately, that they should fear the wrath of God. Edwards does this to motivate the audience to live their lives as perfectly as they can in order to not anger God and to avoid Hell.

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”.

Jonathan Edwards creates a more effective argument for the intended audience in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” than “The Speech in the Virginia Convention” written by Patrick Henry, by utilizing various techniques. Patrick Henry makes a strong argument however in the end, Edwards’ sermon grows to be more effective. Edwards creates the argument by strengthening the writing through tone, structure, fallacies and knowledge of the congregation that became his audience. Henry’s piece uses methods of oratory persuasion but the actual topic of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” has an advantage from the start by appealing to fear, a fallacy of logic. Even with the strong basis “The Speech in the Virginia Convention” by Patrick

Writers use pathos, ethos, and logos in their writing to appeal to their audience. Pathos is an appeal to emotions, ethos is an appeal to trust, and logos is an appeal to reasoning or logic. Frederick Douglass's, " What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" is about his views and the views of many slaves towards the Fourth of July. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos effectively to convey his central message.

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's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is moving and powerful. His effectiveness as an eighteenth century New England religious leader is rooted in his expansive knowledge of the Bible and human nature, as well as a genuine desire to "awaken" and save as many souls as possible. This sermon, delivered in 1741, exhibits Edwards's skillful use of these tools to persuade his congregation to join him in his Christian beliefs.

In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards delivers a powerful sermon to his congregation about the horrors of hell. Throughout the piece, the author explains there is no escape from “eternal destruction,” and one must join God to reach salvation (para. 27). Edwards uses dark, gruesome imagery along with gloomy diction in order to instill fear into the audience, and persuade them to more devoutly worship God.

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

In essence, the Great Awakening was a religious awakening. It started in the South. Tent camps were set up that revolve around high spirited meetings that would last for days. These camp meetings were highly emotional and multitudes of people were filled with the Spirit of God. These meeting, were sponsored mainly by Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterians, and met social needs as well as spiritual needs on the frontier. Since it was hard for the Baptist and Methodist to sustain local churches,

Jonathan Edwards’ passionate sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” creates a state of fear to make “sinners” aware of their sinful state and the wrath of God that they will face sooner or later. In order to warn “sinners” of their future involving God, he approaches fear as a motivator by using metaphors to emphasize God’s disgust towards man, imagery to for the imagination to dwell upon and repetition to build guilt into his readers which helps him enforce his condemning tone.

The First Great Awakening was a religious movement that took place between 1720 and 1750, affecting every colony and greatly affecting history (Garrigus). People started feeling that religion was dull and not as significant as it once was seen (Ppt). Preachers began to feel like people were not putting their emotions on their faith. They wanted people to be physically and emotionally involved (Garrigus). This is where Christians began to turn away from the standard approach of worship. The Great Awakening created a substantial change on how early American’s viewed worship, social standards, political standards, economical standards, and Christianity.

Within the eighteenth century, Christians were going through the Great Awakening, a wave of religious enthusiasm that swept through the colonies in an effort to make an impact on the religion within the areas. In the sermon written by Jonathon Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he is trying to persuade nonbelievers into joining his religion in a way unused by many. To show nonbelievers the two altering sides of God based on what people believe and “they may imagine him to be so” (3), Jonathon Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” utilizes threatening tone, conveying repetition, and augmenting similes to express the fury and hopefulness of God.

The First Great Awakening spread throughout the 13 colonies as an emotional religious revival movement from 1720s to 1740s that appeared due to the increase of secularism and rationalism religion in which evangelist had challenged established denominations and pushed towards a more personal relationship with God (3 + 12).The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival movement from in the 19th century, which called for an individualized relationship between the people and God, promoting it through Baptist and Methodist beliefs, which held a more egalitarian attitude in the case of everyone being able to achieve salvation. The First Great Awakening and Second Great Awakening both transformed religious ideology by introducing individualism, a belief where men have a closer and direct relationship with God. The First and Second Great Awakenings had a transformation in their methods of worship with a change in venue, with the First Great Awakening having people preach to the masses on the street corners outside; while in the Second Great Awakening, having revivals and camp meetings with people screaming and jumping, a change from the traditional, to a wholly new method of worship.

b. Thesis – Jonathan Edwards’s sermon portrayed Puritans as sinners of their religion through the use of rhetorical strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos.

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