Born in East Windsor, Connecticut, Johnathan Edwards graduated from Yale and in recent years became Prime Minister of a Massachusetts church. Edwards soon became a powerful preacher, delivering sermons that led to numerous conversions and helped spark the Great Awakening, a religious revival in New England from 1734 to 1750. When he saw people turning away from the church at the height of the Great Awakening, he delivered his sermon most influential “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In an attempt to restore faith in the Purtian people, Edwards incorporates imagery and repetition into his speech. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the Purtian belief system, God was seen as angry, full of fury. At any moment he could throw a person into hell or decide when to go to heaven. Edwards exaggerates these fears through imagery, hoping to return to a strict Puritan lifestyle. The destiny of men is "in the hands of God, above the abyss of hell", with "the devil waiting for them, hell wide open before them" and "the flames that generate and blaze around them"(122) . Used as a sort of scare tactic, Edward's pictorial words describe how close hell was to someone. No sin is unknown, in the eyes of God it is “abominable” and would have consequences (122). Hell was described as torture, seen as torment, “unconverted men walk the pits of hell on a rotten covering so weak that they cannot bear their weight and these places are not seen” (121). Edward conveys the fragility of the shameful lives his congregation lives. It instills the image of hell in the heads of congregations, instilling the fear of eternal damnation. Used as a reference to the passage of time, repetition is seen through Edward's choice of words in conveying his message to the congregation. Edward emphasizes the importance of the moment, the “extraordinary opportunity, one day when Chris threw open the door of mercy” (123). He asks “how terrible it is to be left behind on such a day! Seeing others feast while you pine and die!” (123). These phrases draw attention to time and the waste of being with God each fleeting day. Edwards insists that while others will be joyful, they will yearn. Repetition is also used as an emotional appeal when Edwards constantly states the same scary words. Hell is "eternal wrath", "it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless abyss, full of the fire of wrath" (122). Because the people have tempered God, they will now face “the wrath of God” (121). The word wrath is used countless times to make clear how angry God is with his people. By emphasizing certain words and phrases, he shows the congregation in the eyes of God that they are sinners and must repent now if they want to live. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get custom information essayEdward's sermon on the wrath of God is focused on persuading people to live puritanically. Done through techniques of imagery and repetition, Edwards' sermon was successful in reviving faith in people. The images burned the idea of ​​hell and its proximity to a certain person at a certain time. He created the fear of being damned where sinners go. At the same time, repeating a few selected words and phrases kept their importance alive in the minds of the congregation. Through the creation of..