Anne Bradstreet's and Johnathan Edward's View of God

Paper Summary:

The following paper discusses views of 'God' with reference to Anne Bradstreet's 'Upon the Burning of our House', and Jonathon Edward's 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'. This paper compares their views and tries to interpret what each author means by a particular sentence.

From the Paper:

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God conveys an extraordinarily unique viewpoint of God. According to Edwards, we are all sinners by nature; it is our most forth standing trait, despite our ongoing efforts to counter it. Throughout his sermon, he goes on endlessly about how God is so merciful to us, and without his mercy we would be thrown to the deepest depths of hell by the very earth itself. What was so deplorable to the people when they first heard it, was that Edwards alleged that all this time that they had thought they had been good Christians, they were in fact sinning against God; all the while they thought they were going to Heaven, they were actually destined for Hell, and there was naught they could do to stop it. ("You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing that you have done, nothing you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment." Edwards, 121.) So, essentially, they were screwed, and it was too late to do anything, you are all going to hell in a hand basket, have a nice Sunday. Edwards wanted to make religion almost a physical experience, and with reports of people fainting and weeping openly without abandon, I would have to say it seems as if he accomplished his task. I only wonder if perhaps a few of his followers turned to Agnosticism or Atheism after such an oration."

More papers on Anne Bradstreet's and Johnathan Edward's View of God:

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• Comparison Essay # 33503 : "Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor"

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