Today in class we finished going over vocab. Next we talked about Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards. This speech was given at Great Awakening meetings. The people going to these meetings already agreed with Edwards, but he was trying to get these people to go out and tell more people about Puritanism. We also discussed how we imagined this speech to be so dramatic and full of energy but actually Edwards was the exact opposite of that. Edwards was calm and told the people that they were sinners and God could just turn his hand over and drop them into hell. This scared the people because they were expecting emotion and entertainment but what they got was someone telling them exactly what was going to happen and in a very calm way.
Vocabulary test tomorrow and poetry reading on Monday 6:30-8:30
-Callie
3 comments:
I find it funny how Edward's style of speaking is the exact opposite of many "megachurch" preachers today. I don't know how seen them when flipping through channels on Sunday morning, but in essence, they tell you with great emotion how great your life is going to be. Quiet a ways off from the emotionless fire and brimstone sermon of Edwards.
I think that the calmness portrayed by Edwards had such a great impact because it was similar to the format of education and informative speaking. In class, teachers do not usually preach to their students, but explains the facts with a relaxed tone of voice. It makes the teacher appear to have greater control of the subject material and have greater confidence in the truth behind their statements.
-Jen G.
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