Rhetorical Analysis Of Jonathan Edwards 'Great Awakening'

O-occasion for the writing (think “exigence” –time/place/situation): During this time, the Puritans had been moving away from England due to persecution for their beliefs. They sought religious freedom and had migrated to North America. Jonathon Edwards, a Calvinist as well as a Yale minister, had believed that people had become too involved with worldly matters and wealth as opposed to the religious principles of John Calvin. He had become passionate about the topic of predestination, and when confronted with the notion that good deeds may save a soul, he protested with such conviction that he had become one of the factors that had sparked the Great Awakening.

A-audience the writing is directed toward: The writing in this sermon is directed towards Edwards’ fellow puritans. Edwards seems to have a very strong bias when discussing people of other religions/lack thereof (“He that believith not is

In the sermon, he attempts to incite religious fervor among the people living in New England by telling them all that they had sinned, which he may have believed would cause them to repent and turn back to God. He consistently evokes images of pain and suffering in the reader, as demonstrated when Edwards argues that “The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you…,” he later adds “…and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.” He makes an endeavor to diminish skepticism in the reader earlier in the verse, expressing