“SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD” ASSIGNMENT

Takeshia Lashay Knox

Bevill State Community College

American Literature I

July 22, 2013

In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards, with a contemptuous attitude, attempts to provoke a religious battle in the Puritan communities of colonial America using the very powerful motivator of fear. He installs the fear of God within the hearts of unconverted people within the church. Edwards reach out to his audience emotionally unstable with the terrifying body of his sermon it allows his conclusion of salvation to be the solution of the entire unconverted congregation. Early on in the sermon, Edwards reveals his target audience all unconverted men but never directly refer to them using words like, “they” and “them”. Those types of people would know that Edwards was referring to them but they maybe wouldn’t feel like the guilty party in the situation. After building up to the point of a threat against those who have not been transformed suddenly Edwards changes the “they” and “them” for the words “you” and “your” He is now directly targeting his audience, exposing them to a direct blame throwing them up in the air, making sure that they feel guilty for living another day. After breaking his audience, throwing them into emotionally by destroying all hope of escaping eternal damnation then opens an escape hatch allowing the emotional distorted people to walk directly into what he wanted.

Throughout the sermon, while Edwards is delivering a description of hell, pain, suffering, anything that is unpleasant and fearful it’s done in all one sentence. The sentences are long and seem never ending all with the purpose of the continuously suffering for the viewers. Even though the topic is meant to hit the ears rough and sharp, the prolonged sentence structure is smooth and connected so