1. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathan Edwards
SOAPSTone Practice

2. Speaker Jonathan Edwards
Masterful Puritan preacher (like father and grandfather)
Born in CT, child prodigy, went to Yale at 12 yrs old
Experienced a spiritual crisis that he thought was necessary for anyone to receive salvation
Believed religion should be rooted in emotion rather than reason
Converted MANY Puritans to be “born again” to accept Jesus

3. Occasion Sermon delivered in 1741 to a congregation in CT
Delivered at the height of the Great Awakening, an extreme movement that required its believers to be born again to receive salvation

4. Audience Church congregation
Christians who lived near Edwards and attended his church
Staunch Puritans who yearned to know whether they were one of “the elect”

5. Purpose
Edwards hopes to renew the spiritual passion that had marked the lives of many listener’s ancestors
He is trying to urge all Christians to experience a personal conversion or suffer eternal damnation
Like other Puritan ministers, Edwards aims to scare Christians who have become complacent so they can be born again

6. Subject
Edwards describes God’s anger towards sinners – people who may attend church and appear religious but who have not experienced a personal conversion.
He warns sinners that at any moment, God may send them to hell, whose torments Edwards describes in vivid detail.

7. Tone
The tone in this excerpt could be described as scathing, accusatory, and didactic.
Scathing— “The God that holds you over the pit of hell…abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked…”
Accusatory— “…you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner…”
Didactic— “…let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come…”