Sinners are Scared

In the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards, many important aspects were discussed. Three that are significant for this speech would be the occasion, audience, and tone. The occasion was during the Great Awakening in the mid-1740's, in Connecticut. The significance of this is that one could tell that the speech will be religious because of the time that Jonathan Edwards presented it. The audience that Edwards was speaking to, were the sinners. By sinners, he meant all human beings, since everyone has sinned. What makes this differ from the other speeches, is that it is speaking to literally everyone rather than a small group of people, or the leader of a specific place. The way he was talking to the audience (his tone), was the same throughout the entire sermon. Edwards spoke in a threatening, didactic, boring, and fearful tone. The way he spoke was for the people to realize that he was attempting to scare them and make them feel like they were all terrible people. Although he spoke with such a tone, people understood what he was trying to point out.