Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Language Analysis

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The Great Awakening was a crucial movement to the decline of religious piety. In Jonathan Edward’s sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, he presents the danger of sin and the intense urgency for change. Similar to many speakers and writers, Edwards has a purpose in mind when delivering his sermon to his congregation. In Edwards's sermon, he appeals to emotion through the use of variation in tone and figurative language/diction with the purpose to instigate a religious fervor that rekindles the faith of the Puritan community. To begin, Edwards utilizes variation in tone to provoke fear and guilt among his congregation. For example, Edwards claims “all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you …show more content…

For instance, Edwards utilizes imagery when he mentions, “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide bottomless pit...with the flames of divine wrath”. In hope of instilling a vivid image of the underworld, Edwards uses repetition with the word “wrath” to put emphasis on the alarming situations that occur in hell, as well as showing God’s anger. Furthermore, Edwards uses diction when he states “you hang by a slender thread” to illustrate God’s ruthlessness to sinful behavior. With this in mind, it depicts God’s powerfulness and superiority, compared to man who is weak and powerless. In another example, Edwards states “the God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect...abhors you”. This simile is paramount because man is compared to a spider, portraying mankind to be disgusting and futile. Moreover, with the use of diction with the words “loathsome” and “abhors”, it emphasizes Edwards conception that God is outraged and heartless to the people that reject their faith. Ultimately, the Great Awakening was a period for religious revival for the faith of many Puritans. Through Edward’s sermon, he paves a road to salvation through the use of variation in tone and figurative language/diction. Edwards shrewdly shifts from a cynical tone to

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