“Were all Reverends like this?” is the question I asked myself after writing my discussion post 4.1 that referenced Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The 4.1 discussion asked what I would have done if I was a member of Reverend Edwards church and after considering his sermon, I, like many others, felt that it was dark and pessimistic and may be difficult to sit through, however, I believed he was speaking truth but may be lacking a feeling of sincerity. Considering myself a religious and curious person, this caused me to question if all Reverends in this time period preached this way and question if I truly understood Reverend Edwards. To begin, Reverend Edwards’ sermon was during a period of time that is referred to as “The Great Awakening”.
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George Whitefield is another man that had a large following. His sermons were vastly different from Jonathan Edwards. George Whitefield was an actor by trade that toured the American Colonies and preached. He did not preach from a typical pulpit in a church setting, however, he would preach in the markets. He would use his acting skills to share his sermons. He would cry, shout, dress as bible characters and tremble with passion to share his messages (Kellner, Innovative). His messages appealed to his audience’s emotions rather than their minds. He knew he had to connect with them on a different level for his messages to be heard (Kellner, …show more content…
However, their message was the same. They were preaching to believers that you cannot enter Heaven through good works alone but that they needed to believe in God and renew their faith. George would appeal to his followers through feelings while Jonathan was trying to reach his followers through harsh facts. Both individuals had large followings, not because they were forced but because of their particular style. It may be difficult to understand why some would follow Jonathan vs. George but I like to think of it in terms of what we know today. If we consider ourselves or our friends, we all learn differently and we all enjoy or desire different things. That doesn’t necessarily mean that one is right and one is wrong, it just means that we take different paths to hopefully obtain the same results. No one individual can appeal to all people all the time so I think that their two different styles just promote the concept that we need people to be different so that we can learn
George Whitefield is another man that had a large following. His sermons were vastly different from Jonathan Edwards. George Whitefield was an actor by trade that toured the American Colonies and preached. He did not preach from a typical pulpit in a church setting, however, he would preach in the markets. He would use his acting skills to share his sermons. He would cry, shout, dress as bible characters and tremble with passion to share his messages (Kellner, Innovative). His messages appealed to his audience’s emotions rather than their minds. He knew he had to connect with them on a different level for his messages to be heard (Kellner, …show more content…
However, their message was the same. They were preaching to believers that you cannot enter Heaven through good works alone but that they needed to believe in God and renew their faith. George would appeal to his followers through feelings while Jonathan was trying to reach his followers through harsh facts. Both individuals had large followings, not because they were forced but because of their particular style. It may be difficult to understand why some would follow Jonathan vs. George but I like to think of it in terms of what we know today. If we consider ourselves or our friends, we all learn differently and we all enjoy or desire different things. That doesn’t necessarily mean that one is right and one is wrong, it just means that we take different paths to hopefully obtain the same results. No one individual can appeal to all people all the time so I think that their two different styles just promote the concept that we need people to be different so that we can learn