1. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

2. Biographical Information Important role in the shaping of The Great Awakening (1730-1755) He entered Yale College in 1716, at just under the age of thirteen. He was a scholar-pastor who spent thirteen hours a day studying theology.

3. Biographical Information In 1734, he preached a series of corrective sermons emphasizing God’s all-powerful offer of grace. His work brought about a number of conversions in the Northampton congregation.

4. Biographical Information Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God was preached to the congregation of Enfield, Massachusetts in July 1741. –The sermon represents the bleak, cruel, and hell-bent outlook of Edwards and his Puritan predecessors

5. The Sermon The sermon is a classic statement of the Puritan’s literal vision of Hell and of their belief in humanity’s utter dependence upon God. He repeats his main ideas, with slight variations, over and over, in poundingly repetitive rhythms, drilling into his audience the precariousness of their situation.

6. Author’s Life and Times: 1740’s-The Great Awakening began at a time when enthusiasm for the old Puritan religion was in decline. So, in order to offset losses in congregational populations, Christian ministers, like Jonathan Edwards, began to encourage the saving of “unregenerate” Christians to repopulate the churches.

7. Author’s Life and Times Edwards practiced fire and brimstone preaching, often depicting God as a wrathful being, and wanted his audiences to know that if they step out of line, God would most surely punish them.

8. Author’s Sermons Edwards preached a return to Calvinism which stressed predestination, the belief that only a select few chosen by God would be saved. No individual could earn grace by doing good deeds, so everyone was equally powerless to control their own fate.

9. Who is his Audience? Audience - The “natural men,” Edwards’ target audience, were in all probability not well educated, possibly even illiterate. Also, they may have heard about some of the stories of the Bible but would certainly not have been as familiar with it as most of the Puritan faithful would have been.

10. Assignment In the Orange Textbook turn to page 124 and begin reading “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Answer questions 1-6 on page 130