An Angry God Imagery

Decent Essays
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a popular Puritan sermon written by Jonathan Edwards. Edwards uses imagery to instruct fear in the hearts of his audience, particularly in the line “God holds you over the pits of Hell much as one holds a spider or some other loathsome insect over the fire…” The hand in the image is a representing of the hand of God, holding everyone above Hell. By just barely holding onto the spider-man, the hands position represents God’s ever present disgust with human nature. Burning below the flames of hell are ready to engulf the abominable creature. The inspiration behind making the man in the picture more spider than human was to emphasise the point that God views humans as one views a spider, “...much

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Writing Style of Olaudah Equiano in Comparison to Johnathon Edwards Olaudah Equiano had published his narrative during the same time period as many prominent Puritans like Jonathon Edwards and Ann Bradstreet. However; his writing differs greatly from theirs. Equiano views God as shepherd rather than an omnipotent being waiting to condemn all of humanity to hell. Equiano writes a narrative detailing his journeys from salve to freeman while Edwards creates a religious sermon meant to scare the congregation into repenting. The most drastic difference between the two of writers is their use of imagery.…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In paragraph three of the story“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Edwards says,…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 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

    World War II and the Enigma machine Ben Karpinski Independent Studies The Enigma Machine was a very large turning point in technology for the war. Not only was it a way of communication, but it was a way of coded information. This would end up being a way to transfer top secret information long distance.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Revivalist preacher, Jonathon Edwards, in his homily, From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, conveys the idea that those who haven’t experienced an internal renewal are servants of the devil. Edwards’ purpose is to portray the depravity and perversion of sinners and their ways. He adopts multiple tones, a fearful tone being a prevalent one, in order to foreground the immorality of choosing sin over God and the implications of doing so. Edwards proficiently uses the stylistic choices of diction and syntax to reiterate the power of God and the inevitable judgment he will provide for those who disobey.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Effects of Effectiveness Jonathan Edwards spoke in favor of the Puritan beliefs during his speech titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” on July 8, 1741. To a widespread audience of most everyone in the village, Edwards portrayed the Puritan’s belief by making it clear that God must be worshiped, for He is the only reason sinners have not already been sent to Hell. Likewise, Martin Luther King Jr. writes the “Letter From Birmingham Jail” to 8 clergymen fighting for the right to a nonviolent protest on civil rights. While delivering the letter on April 16th, 1963, King’s purpose was to inform the clergymen, who agreed upon the imprisonment, that the right to peaceful protest is well deserved. Both men deliver powerful pieces of literature to address a social issue in the respectful time period.…

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the sermon fear is used to essentially control his audience, which is implemented through intense imagery, scare strategies, and use of fearsome descriptions. He uses all these to mold his audience’s viewpoint to be similar as his, so this way he can convince his public to morally change. In the sermon this is exemplified by an analogy relating the ability of a person to crush a worm with the ability of God to cast his enemies to hell (First Paragraph). This supports the main argument of representing God as a merciless, wrathful deity and at the same time this concept is present in the audiences mind. “God has unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world” (Paragraph 3), this again proposes the idea of an angry god, a fearsome god, someone who they should be afraid of.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    When trying to persuade someone, in text and speech, using persuasive appeals will help get the people on that person 's perspective. But, what is a persuasive appeal? It is the usage of ethos, logos, pathos and sometimes figurative language to efficiently convince the person(s) to to believe and agree; yet some people do not know what ethos, logos, and pathos are. Ethos: is convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader; logos: is an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason; pathos: is an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. Two examples a writer and preacher manifest how well persuasive appeals work, it is Jonathan Edwards…

    • 1908 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An Angry God Ethos

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The pathos expressed by Jonathan Edwards was extremely convincing to the puritans due to the way he provided hope and imagery to the puritans on how their daily life actions might led them into a heaven or hell. But is there really a heaven or hell after our life, or is it all just a big myth that people choose to believe or not? Could something as simple as playing games as a little kid really deny you entry to heaven. All the sacrificed to people’s daily lives that are being made really going to pay off? If there a world to exist after our lives is all said and done with.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of the most important key symbols for Webheads is the iconic Spiderman symbol. The symbol is commonly called the Grand Spider by Webheads, though it is just referred to as the “Spiderman Symbol” to those not affiliated with the Congregation. This symbol is a colossal part of their everyday life. How is this recognized as the key symbol of the Congregation of Spider-Sense to someone outside of the Congregation? We can evaluate the validity of this image as a key symbol using the principles detailed by Sherry Ortner in her work On Key Symbols.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 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
  • 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

    “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you….” This image would evoke the sense of urgency Edwards intended as the picture of God holding the sinner dangling over the pit of hell. This would certainly frighten those who know they have not accepted God’s grace. Edwards changes his tone to one of hope and appeals to the emotions of the congregation when he says, “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners.” Jonathan Edwards now gives the puritans hope that God loves them and is welcoming them with open arms.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Each of these topics is made more effective with the use of rhetorical devices, which are the heart and soul of Edwards’s emotional appeal to his listeners. Edwards uses rhetorical devices to scare his audience from the path of eternal damnation and onto the path of boundless righteousness. He used imagery when he said, “It is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell” and “the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up” (Edwards 198). He says this to paint a picture to the congregation of how close they are to eternal damnation, and that it is only because of God’s grace that they are alive…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Young Goodman Brown” and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” are related to the religious believes. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards compare his audiences to sinners, as the “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne said the “evil is the nature of mankind.” Both documents is trying to convert people to Christians or make them better Christians by scaring them. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown have to leave his three month married wife, Faith, along in the house for his evil purpose.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays