Lesson 1.4 · Unit 1 · RI.11-12.6, RI.11-12.4
The sermon as a made object
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is the most famous sermon in American history and it is usually remembered as shouting. Edwards reportedly delivered it in a level voice, which makes the question of how it works a question about construction.
- Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon at Enfield, Connecticut, in 1741, during the revival known as the Great Awakening.
- He read from a manuscript in a level voice, by contemporary accounts, and the congregation's reaction interrupted him.
- The sermon's method is sustained figurative language, not volume.
- Its governing images are weight, thinness and holding: lead, a spider's thread, a hand.
- The second person is used relentlessly, so the danger is always the listener's own.
- The present tense makes the threat current, since nothing is described as future.
- Puritan sermon structure runs text, doctrine, and application, and the application is the longest part.
- The famous passage is one image sustained, which is a technique rather than an outburst.
Where students lose marks: describing the sermon as emotional and stopping. The effect is produced by specific and identifiable choices, and an analysis has to name them.
The text. Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", 1741. Public domain.
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.
You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder.
Step one: count the second persons. "Holds you", "abhors you", "towards you", "upon you", "you hang". Five in two short passages. The listener is never allowed to hear this as a description of someone else.
Step two: examine the tense. Holds, abhors, burns, looks, hang. Every verb is present. Nothing is predicted; everything is reported as already the case, which removes the interval in which a listener might postpone the problem.
Step three: identify the central figure. A person holding an insect over a flame. It is a domestic image, available to everybody, and it establishes an enormous disparity of power in one clause.
Step four: state what the figure imports. Casual indifference. Nobody holding a spider over a fire is engaged in a struggle, and the loathsomeness is not the spider's crime but the holder's opinion. The listener's position is not being punished so much as considered.
Step five: work the second image. A thread that could be singed at any moment. Weight is doing the work here, since a hanging body has weight and a thread has almost none, and the whole passage depends on the reader's physical sense of that imbalance.
Step six: state why the level delivery matters. A shouted sermon gives the listener something to react against, and reaction is a defense. A man reading terrible things calmly from a page offers nothing to resist. Contemporary accounts say the congregation interrupted him, which is the design working.
Step seven: place the passage in the structure. Puritan sermons ran text, doctrine, application, and the application was longest. The famous passages are application, which means they arrive after a doctrinal case has already been made and are addressed to people who have agreed to the premises.
Step eight: write the analysis sentence. "Edwards produces terror without raising his voice by keeping every verb in the present tense and every pronoun in the second person, so that a congregation hearing a calm man read from a page is told not what will happen to sinners but what is happening to them, now, while he reads."
Questions 1 to 5 are recall. Questions 6 to 10 ask for reasoning.
- When and where was the sermon preached?
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Enfield, Connecticut, 1741, during the Great Awakening
- How did Edwards deliver it?
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Reading from a manuscript in a level voice
- Name the three parts of a Puritan sermon.
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Text, doctrine, application
- What is the sermon's central figure?
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A person holding a spider or insect over a fire
- What does the listener hang by?
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A slender thread, with flames flashing about it
- What does the relentless second person accomplish?
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It denies the listener any position outside the danger. Five second-person pronouns in two short passages mean the sermon can never be heard as a description of sinners in general, which is the way a congregation would naturally prefer to hear it. The grammar removes the escape route before the images arrive. It prevents the listener from hearing it as being about someone else
- Why is every verb in the present tense?
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Because a future threat can be postponed and a present one cannot. Holds, abhors, burns, looks and hang report the situation as already the case rather than predicting it, which removes the interval in which a listener might resolve to deal with the problem later. The tense is doing the work that urgency usually requires volume for. A present threat cannot be postponed the way a future one can
- What quality does the spider image import?
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Casual indifference. Nobody holding a spider over a fire is engaged in a struggle or exerting effort, and the loathsomeness belongs to the holder's opinion rather than to anything the spider has done. The listener's position is not one of being punished after a contest; it is one of being considered, briefly, by something enormously larger. Effortless indifference rather than struggle or punishment
- Why does the level delivery increase the effect?
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A shouted sermon gives a listener something to react against, and reaction is a form of defense: one can find the preacher excessive and stop listening. A man reading terrible things calmly from a page offers nothing to resist, so the content arrives undiluted. Contemporary accounts report that the congregation interrupted him, which is the design working rather than failing. Calm delivery gives a listener nothing to react against
- What does the sermon's structure tell you about the famous passages?
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They are application, the last and longest of the three parts. That means they arrive after a doctrinal case has been laid out and are addressed to listeners who have already accepted the premises. The terror is not an opening gambit but a conclusion drawn from propositions the congregation had agreed to, which is why it could not be dismissed as mere frightening. They are the application, drawn from premises the congregation had already accepted