“THE GOD THAT holds you over the pit of hell much as one
holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire abhors you, and is
dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you
as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes
than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his
eyes as the most hateful and venomous serpent is in ours.”
Jonathan Edwards get right to the point in his sermon. He is
speaking to sinners or in other words all of mankind. From my 20th
century perspective the genre seems to be horror. Reading through this sermon
created the image of a man crying condemnation on the people. His intentions
seem to scare or coerce the people into accept Christ and abstaining from sin,
otherwise they will be “consumed” by fire.
It is an interesting tactic and one that seems quite
ridiculous to me but when I put myself in the audience’s shoes it is a
different experience. The great awakening was a time of great confusion. There
was “truth” being preached everywhere. Jonathan Edwards was a popular man, he
was also known for his “feeble” voice, so my original idea of a man screaming
and shouting repentance at the audience was thrown out the window. I imagine
there were skeptics who refused to believe him but he knew how to appeal to the
pathos of the majority of the people.
He knew people were lost and confused and uneducated in the
manner so he used sharp imagery that people could relate to and he appealed to
their emotions of fear. I believe his intentions were good. He used fear but it
was because he truly believed that if the people did not repent they would be
utterly be destroyed. Which in a sense is true, he just didn't have the knowledge of the Atonement of Christ and the love of Gad like we do now.
It is interesting that he was said to have been a beloved preacher who had a feeble voice. That changes how I imagine the delivery of the sermon, it seems to lesson the emphasis on damnation and heighten the focus on the invitation to repent. He sounds like a prophet of the old Testament.
ReplyDeleteI found your analysis of his audience helpful. They would certainly be able to relate very well to imagery. I wonder though if we are that much different today. Imagery is very powerful for us, think of a time when someone explicitly described the hardships of something. I know when that happens I am very motivated not to do that thing they spoke of. Also the prophets of the old testament like Charles mentioned.
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