SINNERS

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

A sermon delivered by the theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) on July 8, 1741, in Enfield, Connecticut, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" endures as a classic of oratory and rhetoric. It provides insights into the feelings and ideologies that swept through the colonies during the First Great Awakening, a period of religious revival from about 1730 to 1755. Edwards builds his sermon from Deuteronomy 32:35—"Their foot shall slide in due time"—in an attempt to "awaken" his congregation to ideas about God's mercy, grace, and wrath, ...