Jonathan Edwards: The Wilderness of God’s World
Growing up, Jonathan Edwards always had interest in natural history and science; when he was 13, he enrolled in Yale where he read Newton and Locke, and began multiple journals with subjects having to do with things in the natural environment such as insects, atoms and rainbows. Nature was one of the main themes repeated in most of Edward’s writing. His passion for the splendor and grace of nature is apparent throughout all of his work and proves that he viewed the phenomena of the natural environment solely as evidence of God’s divine creation. Edwards uses specific and descriptive explanations and analogies in “Personal Narrative”, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, and “Images or Shadows of Divine Things” to prove how big of a role the natural world plays in understanding both, the noble and malevolent faces of God, and also how God communicates through nature. The first time Edward’s stumbled upon God’s glory through nature was accidental; he was walking and looked up at the sky and clouds, only to find within its natural beauty, a sense of God’s divinity. Of this particular experience, in his “Personal Narrative”, he says, “I seemed to see …show more content…
It seems like he believes that there are two faces to God: one honorable and one vengeful. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards uses his same voice, still completely passionate for and astonished by nature, to explain God’s wrath instead of God’s glory. Instead of writing about how God is showing us his love through nature, he flips it upside down and writes about how God is showing his rage. He uses examples of terrible natural disasters such as black clouds, thunder, rough winds, great waters and floods to reiterate just how powerful and almighty the angry God really
Growing up, Jonathan Edwards always had interest in natural history and science; when he was 13, he enrolled in Yale where he read Newton and Locke, and began multiple journals with subjects having to do with things in the natural environment such as insects, atoms and rainbows. Nature was one of the main themes repeated in most of Edward’s writing. His passion for the splendor and grace of nature is apparent throughout all of his work and proves that he viewed the phenomena of the natural environment solely as evidence of God’s divine creation. Edwards uses specific and descriptive explanations and analogies in “Personal Narrative”, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, and “Images or Shadows of Divine Things” to prove how big of a role the natural world plays in understanding both, the noble and malevolent faces of God, and also how God communicates through nature. The first time Edward’s stumbled upon God’s glory through nature was accidental; he was walking and looked up at the sky and clouds, only to find within its natural beauty, a sense of God’s divinity. Of this particular experience, in his “Personal Narrative”, he says, “I seemed to see …show more content…
It seems like he believes that there are two faces to God: one honorable and one vengeful. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards uses his same voice, still completely passionate for and astonished by nature, to explain God’s wrath instead of God’s glory. Instead of writing about how God is showing us his love through nature, he flips it upside down and writes about how God is showing his rage. He uses examples of terrible natural disasters such as black clouds, thunder, rough winds, great waters and floods to reiterate just how powerful and almighty the angry God really