Editing Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

{{Short description|Sermon by Jonathan Edwards (1741)}}
{{Infobox short story
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| name             = Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
| image            = Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards 1741.jpg
| caption          = "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. A Sermon Preached at Enfield, Connecticut, July 8th<!--as printed--> 1741."
| author           = [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]]
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| country          = [[Thirteen Colonies|British Colonies]]
| language         = English
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| genre            = [[Sermon]]
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| pub_date         = 8 July 1741
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| wikisource       = Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
}}

"'''Sinners in the Hands of an  Angry God'''" is a [[sermon]] written by the [[History of religion in the United States#Before the American Revolution|American]] [[theologian]] [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]], preached to his own congregation in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], to profound effect,<ref>{{harvnb|Stout|2006|p=139}}</ref> and again on July 8, 1741 in [[Enfield, Connecticut]]. The preaching of this sermon was the catalyst for the [[First Great Awakening]].<ref>{{harvnb|Crocco|2006|p=303}}; {{harvnb|Marsden|2004|p=219f}}</ref> Like Edwards' other works, it combines vivid imagery of [[Christian views on sin|sinners]]' everlasting torment in the burning fires of [[Hell in Christianity|Hell]] with observations of the world and citations of [[Bible|Biblical scripture]]. It is Edwards' most famous written work, and a fitting representation of his preaching style.<ref>{{harvnb|Wilson|pp=29–30}}</ref> It is widely studied by [[Christianity|Christians]] and historians, providing a glimpse into the [[Christian theology|theology]] of the First Great Awakening of {{circa|1730–1755}}.

This was a highly influential sermon of the Great Awakening, emphasizing [[God in Christianity|God]]'s wrath upon unbelievers after death to a very real, horrific, and fiery Hell.<ref>{{harvnb|Marsden|2004|p=221}}</ref> The underlying point is that God has given humans a chance to confess their sins. It is the mere will of God, according to Edwards, that keeps wicked men from being overtaken by the [[Devil in Christianity|devil]] and his demons and cast into the furnace of Hell – "like greedy hungry lions, that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back [by God's hand]." Mankind's own attempts to avoid falling into the "bottomless gulf" due to the overwhelming "weight and pressure towards hell" are insufficient as "a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock". This act of [[Grace in Christianity|grace]] from God has given humans a chance to believe and trust in [[Christ]].<ref>{{harvnb|Marsden|2004|p=222}}</ref> Edwards provides much varied and vivid imagery to illustrate this main theme throughout.

==Doctrine==
[[File:JE_Sinners_in_the_Hands_Monument.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|A monument in [[Enfield, Connecticut]] commemorating the location where the sermon was preached]]

Most of the sermon's text consists of ten "considerations":
# God may cast wicked men into Hell at any given moment.
# The wicked deserve to be cast into Hell. Divine justice does not prevent God from destroying the wicked at any moment.
# The wicked, at {{em|this}} moment, suffer under God's condemnation to Hell.
# The wicked, on earth—at this very moment—suffer a sample of the torments of Hell. The wicked must not think, simply because they are not physically in Hell, that God (in whose hand the wicked now reside) is not—at this very moment—as angry with {{em|them}} as he is with those he is now tormenting in Hell, and who—at this very moment—feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath.
# At any moment God shall permit him, [[Satan]] stands ready to fall upon the wicked and seize them as his own.
# If it were not for God's restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire.
# Simply because there are not visible means of death before them at any given moment, the wicked should not feel secure.
# Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think that others may care for them, men should not think themselves safe from God's wrath.
# All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell's pains shall afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
# God has never promised to save mankind from Hell, except for those contained in [[Christ]] through the covenant of Grace.

==Purpose==

One church in Enfield, Connecticut, had been largely unaffected during the [[First Great Awakening]] of New England. Edwards was invited by the pastor of the church to preach to them. Edwards's aim was to teach his listeners about the horrors of Hell, the dangers of sin, and the terrors of being lost. Edwards described the position of those who do not follow Christ's urgent call to receive forgiveness. Edwards scholar John E. Smith notes that despite the apparent pessimism of the notion of an angry God, that pessimism is "overcome by the comforting hope of [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] through a triumphant, loving savior." Whenever Edwards preached terror, it was part of a larger campaign to turn sinners from their disastrous path and to the rightful object of their affections, Jesus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=John E. |title=A Jonathan Edwards Reader |date=1995 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=xvii}}</ref>

==Application==

In the final section of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards shows that his theological argument holds throughout scripture and biblical history. He invokes stories and examples throughout the [[Bible]]. Edwards ends the sermon with one final appeal: "Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come." According to Edwards and the Bible, only by returning to Christ can one escape the stark fate he outlines.

==Effect and legacy==

Reverend [[Stephen Williams (minister)|Stephen Williams]] was in attendance at the Enfield sermon, with his diary entry for that day containing the following account of the congregation's reactions during and after the sermon:
{{blockquote| [B]efore the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying out through the whole house — "What shall I do to be saved?" "Oh, I am going to hell!" "Oh what shall I do for a Christ?" and so forth — so that the minister was obliged to desist. [The] shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing. After some time of waiting, the congregation were still, so that a prayer was made by Mr. Wheelock, and after that we descended from the pulpit and discoursed with the people, some in one place and some in another. And amazing and astonishing: the power [of] God was seen and several souls were hopefully wrought upon that night, and oh the cheerfulness and pleasantness of their countenances that received comfort. Oh that God would strengthen and confirm [their new faith]! We sang a hymn and prayed, and dispersed the assembly.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Kimnach |editor1-first=Wilson H. |editor2-last=Maskell |editor2-first=Caleb J.D. |editor3-last=Minkema |editor3-first=Kenneth P. |title=Jonathan Edwards's 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God': A Casebook |date= 2010 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=9780300140385 |pages=1–2 |chapter=The Story of ''Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'', Wilson H. Kimnach}}</ref>}}

Although the sermon has received criticism, Edwards' words have endured and are still read to this day. Edwards' sermon continues to be the leading example of a First Great Awakening sermon and is still used in religious and academic studies.<ref>{{harvnb|Ostling|2003}}</ref>

Since the 1950s, a number of critical perspectives were used to analyze the sermon.<ref>{{harvnb|Choiński|2016}}</ref>{{page number|date=February 2025}} The first comprehensive academic analysis of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was published by Edwin Cady in 1949,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cady |first=Edwin H. |date=1949 |title=The Artistry of Jonathan Edwards |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/361536 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=61–72 |doi=10.2307/361536 |jstor=361536 |issn=0028-4866}}</ref> who comments on the imagery of the sermon and distinguishes between the "cliché" and "fresh" figurative images, stressing how the former related to colonial life. Lee Stuart questions that the message of the sermon was solely negative and attributes its success to the final passages in which the sinners are actually "comforted".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Robert Stuart |date=1976 |title=Jonathan Edwards at Enfield: 'And Oh the Cheerfulness and Pleasantness' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2925313 |journal=American Literature |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=46–59 |doi=10.2307/2925313 |jstor=2925313}}</ref> Rosemary Hearn argues that it is the logical structure of the sermon that constitutes its most important persuasive element.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hearn |first=Rosemary |date=1985 |title=Form as Argument in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44321854 |journal=CLA Journal |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=452–459 |jstor=44321854}}</ref> Lemay looks into the changes in the syntactic categories, like grammatical tenses, in the [[Text (literary theory)|text]] of the sermon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lemay |first=J.A. Leo |title=Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards and the Representation of American Culture |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-19-507775-X |editor-last=Oberg |editor-first=Barbara B. |location=New York |pages=186–204 |chapter=Rhetorical Strategies in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster Country |editor-last2=Stout |editor-first2=Harry S. }}</ref> Lukasik stresses how, in the sermon, Edwards appropriates Newtonian physics, especially the image of the gravitational pull that would relentlessly bring down the sinners.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lukasik |first=Christopher |date=2000 |title=Feeling the Force of Certainty: The Divine Science, Newtonianism, and Jonathan Edwards's 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/366801 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=73 |issue=2 |pages=222–245 |doi=10.2307/366801 |issn=0028-4866|jstor=366801}}</ref> Gallagher focuses on the "beat" of the sermon, and on how the consecutive structural elements of the sermon serve different persuasive aims.<ref>{{citation|last=Gallagher|first=Edward|title=Sinners in the Hands of an Agry God: Some Unfinished Business|journal=The New England Quarterly|date=June 2000 |volume=73 |issue=2|doi=10.2307/366800 |jstor=366800 |url=http://preserve.lehigh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=cas-english-faculty-publications|access-date=2013-01-04}}</ref> Choiński suggests that the rhetorical success of the sermon consists in the use of the "deictic shift" that transported the hearers mentally into the figurative images of hell.<ref>{{citation|last=Choiński|first=Michał|title=A Cognitive Approach to the Hermeneutics of Jonathan Edwards's Sermons|journal=Theologica Wratislaviensia|volume=VII|url=http://www.dbc.wroc.pl/Content/27368/ThWr_2012_7.pdf|access-date=2013-01-04}}</ref>

Jonathan Edwards also wrote and spoke a great deal on heaven and angels, writes John Gerstner in ''Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and Hell'', 1991,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gertsner |first=John |title=Heaven and Hell: Jonathan Edwards on the Afterlife |publisher=Baker Book House |year=1991 |isbn=9780801037498 |location=Grand Rapids}}</ref>{{page number|date=February 2025}} and those themes are less remembered, namely "Heaven is a World of Love".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/charity16.htm|title=Heaven, a World of Love – Jonathan Edwards}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[American philosophy]]
* [[Calvinism]]
* ''[[A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton|A Faithful Narrative]]''
* ''[[The Freedom of the Will]]''
* [[Great Awakening]], generally, the term used for three or four distinct periods of [[Christian revival|religious revival]] in [[History of Christianity in the United States|American Christian history]]
* ''[[The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners]]''
* [[Puritans]]
* [[Redemption (theology)|Redemption]]
* ''[[Religious Affections]]''

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

==References==

* {{citation|last=Choiński|first=Michał|title=Rhetoric of the Revival: The Language of the Great Awakening|url=http://www.v-r.de/en/the_rhetoric_of_the_revival_the_language_of_the_great_awakening_preachers/t-726/1037979/|date=2016|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|location=Göttingen|isbn=978-3-525-56023-5|access-date=2016-07-04}}
* {{citation|last=Conforti|first=Joseph|title=Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition, & American Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUE83C-7VE8C&pg=PR9|year=1995|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=978-0-8078-4535-6|access-date=2013-01-04}}
* {{citation|last=Crocco|first=Stephen|editor-last=Stein|editor-first=Stephen|contribution=Edwards's Intellectual Legacy|title=The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|date=2006|pages=300–324|isbn=978-0-521-61805-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4SNQgAACAAJ|access-date=2013-01-04}}
* {{citation|last1=Hart|first1=Darryl|last2=Lucas|first2=Sean|last3=Nichols|first3=Stephen|title=The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EeGfAAAAMAAJ|date= 2003|publisher=Baker Academic|location=Grand Rapids|isbn=978-0-8010-2622-5|access-date=2013-01-04}}
* {{citation|last1=Kimnach|first1=Wilson|last2=Maskell|first2=Caleb|last3=Minkema|first3=Kenneth|title=Jonathan Edwards's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6BoPaAV_9gC|date= 2010|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=978-0-300-14038-5|access-date=2013-01-04}}
* {{citation|last=Marsden|first=George|author-link=George Marsden|title=Jonathan Edwards|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XS2i74GDn2UC|date= 2004|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=978-0-300-10596-4|access-date=2013-01-04}}
* {{citation|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yoQ0AAAAIBAJ&pg=2590,562312&dq=sinners+in+the+hands+of+an+angry+god|title=Theologian Still Relevant After 300 Years|last=Ostling|first=Richard|date=4 October 2003|work=Times Daily|agency=Associated Press|access-date=2013-01-04}}
* {{citation|last=Stout|first=Harry|editor-last=Stein|editor-first=Stephen|contribution=Edwards as Revivalist|title=The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|date=2006|pages=125–143|isbn=978-0-521-61805-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4SNQgAACAAJ|access-date=2013-01-04}}
* {{citation|last=Wilson|first=John|title=A History of the Work of Redemption|journal=WJE Online|volume=9|url=http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy44OjIud2plbw==|access-date=2013-01-04}}

==External links==

{{Wikisource|Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God}}
* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=etas Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God], from DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska – Lincoln

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[[Category:Christian sermons]]
[[Category:1741 documents]]
[[Category:18th-century Christian texts]]
[[Category:Enfield, Connecticut]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in the United States]]
[[Category:Hell]]
[[Category:Works by Jonathan Edwards (theologian)]]