Question

Describe how Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God represents a transition between the religious era of the Puritans and the Age of Enlightenment. How does Edwards manages to balance objective science with his faith? How does Edwards attempt to convince or persuade his audience? How were the ideas in this text similar- and/or different- from the ones present in Bradford's text?

Answer 1

Two separate stories seemingly go on in the given eras. Much of it includes the era of Queen Victoria and Elizabeth. Renaissance has Henry the 8^th and his wife and how religion played out while lot of people were also killed. 1620s, 30s and 40s saw similar era with the Puritans. Puritans who came to America were from Holland and transplanted from England primarily. They actually wanted to be able to have the freedom to practice their own religion and faith without any restriction or fear.

The Enlightenment period on the other hand was a time of reason wherein social, religious and political revolution throughout the 18^th century changed the thoughts of man during this ‘awakening’ time. It was a liberation from ignorant thoughts, ideas, and actions that had broken away from the ignorant perception of how society was to be kept and obeyed thus providing little space for new ideas to flourish Puritan society on the other hand found these new ideas and thoughts to be extremely radical in comparison to what they believed was a strong rational religion and morality system. Edwards’ message centred around the ideas that humans were sinners, God was an angry judge and individuals needed to ask for forgiveness. He also preached justification by faith alone. The theme of this thought system comprised of certain factor such as: All humans are born sinners, sin without salvation will send an individual to hell, every individual should seek for God’s mercy and forgiveness in order to move forward in their journey towards attempted salvation, everyone can have a direct connection with the almighty and religion should not be formal or institutionalized, rather casual and personalized. He convinces his audience through creating a blend between religion and science so much so that mass attention and acceptance was received by him and also gave way extensively to his ideas within Christianity.