Unit 5 covers Jonathan Edwards life and works as well as the Great Awakening through his sermons

1. Literatura Norteamericana I
American Literature I
Ricardo Menéndez
10 ECTS Credits 2016-2017

2. Authors & Contents 1st Term
Study Block I
 Early American Literature
 Captain John Smith – Oct 5th
 William Bradford – Oct 19th
 Anne Bradstreet – Oct 26th
 Mary Rowlandson – Nov 2nd
 The American Enlightment
 Jonathan Edwards – Nov 16th
 Benjamin Franklin – Nov 23rd
 Olaudah Equiano – Nov 30th
 Phillis Wheatley – Nov 30th
 Romanticism (part I)
 Washington Irving – Dec 14th
 James Fenimore Cooper – Dec 21st
 Ralph Waldo Emerson – Jan 11th
 Henry David Thoroeau – Jan 18th
 Review past exams – -
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

3. “
”
Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake
and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty
God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great
part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom:
"Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you,
escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.
 Biography
 Works by author
 Online resources
 Q&A
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

4. Objectives of the Unit
 Learn about the impact exercised upon American Culture by the
most eminent voice of the Great Awakening
 Interpret Edward’s sermons as literary masterpieces – experimental
rhetorical strategies that elicit emotional responses from audience
 Understand how speeches were sources of knowledge in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that described divine
revelation and human reason
 Examine effective use of imagery to communicate ideas in a
language of sensory experience to make listeners not only understand,
but feel
 Explore how similes (explicit) and metaphors (implicit) work in the
writings of a highly skilled stylist that uses them skillfully to convey
his message
Unit 5 – Jonathan Edwards
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

5. Biography
 Born in East Windsor, a new settlement in the Connecticut River valley
 Child prodigy brought up in a time when initial Puritan fervor was being lost
 Philosopher and Theologian exposed to works of Newton and Locke at Yale
 Applied his learnings on physics, empiricism and rationalism to reflect the
magnificence of god
 Firmly opposed Deists and their idea of reaching God through reason alone
 Often labelled the last great Puritan
 Convinced defender of orthodox Calvinism – Salvation only comes by God’s
free and irresistible gift of grace
 Edwards works were never meant for publication. However nearly 1,250 have
reached our days
 Decisive impact on development of American culture
 Very experimental, a literary innovator
 Major figure in the canon of American letters by critics
Unit 5 – Jonathan Edwards
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

6. The Great Awakening
 A wave of exaltation intended to “awaken” dormant religious feelings
 Spiritual revival tried to restore seventeenth century Puritan religious intensity
 It began in New England in 1734 and involved most colonies lasting in some places
until the late 1740s after which it dwindled
 Initially led by reverend George Whitefield, a young English preacher
 The Great Awakening not only rekindled Puritan faith but recast Calvinism
 It emphasized individual experience of conversion or regeneration
 Some ministers denounced the Great Awakening as heresy, while other initial
enthusiasts were scared of losing control of their parishioners
 Emotional side of religion is central now
 Stressing the emotional side of religion made it more attractive, but brought a frenzy
with outbursts of religious fervor like crying, weeping or going into fits.
 Though Edward was one of the most important apologists who defended the Great
Awakening from its enemies, he was also one of its most perceptive critics as well
Unit 5 – Jonathan Edwards
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

7. Calvinists (not exactly Puritans)
 Calvinism (Reformed tradition, Reformed Christianity or the Reformed faith) is a major
branch of Protestantism that follows the tradition and forms of Christian practice of John
Calvin (1509–64)
 Calvinists broke with the Roman Catholic Church but differed with Lutherans on several
fronts
 The movement was first called Calvinism by Lutherans who opposed it, and many within the
tradition would prefer to use the word Reformed.
 Most settlers in the new world were Calvinists, including the English Puritans
 The Puritans were a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries
who sought to purify the Church of England from all Roman Catholic practices, maintaining
that the Church of England was only partially reformed.
 Puritans adopted a Reformed theology and, in that sense, were Calvinists (as were many of
their earlier opponents), but they also took note of radical criticisms of Calvin in Geneva.
 The term Puritan, never a formally defined sect or religious division within Protestantism,
was used rarely to describe people after the turn of the 18th century.
Unit 5 – Jonathan Edwards
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

8. The Works of Jonathan Edwards
 His popular reputation nowadays rest almost exclusively on one single
sermon: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
 This sermon is considered the literary monument of the Great Awakening
 Edwards was not worried of terrifying parishioners when warning sinners
 His writings are distinctly elaborate with innovative imagery
 Jonathan Edwards’s rhetorical strategies try to give a sense of immediacy to
images that were familiar in his time and revive stale metaphors
 The logic of his outstandingly eloquent sermons are founded on a rigorously
analytical approach full of tension and suspension
 The importance and influence of Jonathan Edwards’s works makes the
Cambridge History of American Literature claim he is a true hinge author:
“the last great Puritan or the first American Romantic”
Unit 5 – Jonathan Edwards
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

9. Analysis of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
 Being a consummate and sophisticated rhetorician, Edwards gives great
importance to the structure of sermons
 The style of Sinners is the typical tripartite structure of a Puritan Sermon
 Text: begins with the biblical quotation above and a brief explanation to clarify
its meaning in its context (There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one
moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God)
 Doctrine: ten considerations set forward to prove the opening statement.
Exposed as numbered items in logical order
 Application: third part; series of uses which try to turn abstract principles into
concrete and practical messages
 Conclusion: ends sermon. A simple statement to wrap up the sermon
 The unit selects three extracts from the sermon: the first two parts are from the
Text & Doctrinal sections, the second is the beginning of the Application section
and the third passage is the last paragraph, the conclusion of the sermon.
Unit 5 – Jonathan Edwards
Their foot shall slide in due time (Deuteronomy 32.35)
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

10. Online Resources for Jonathan Edwards
 Selected Sermons by Jonathan Edwards
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.html
 LibriVox Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: Audio Files
 Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Wikipedia Entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinners_in_the_Hands_of_an_Angry_God
 Jonathan Edwards on LION (Proquest Literature Online)
 Resources and Links suggested in the Curso Vitual
 One of the many videos of readings of Jonathan Edward’s most famous
jeremiad sermon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQg7EzPeg5Q
Unit 5 – Jonathan Edwards
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2016-2017 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

11. Questions?
Thank you
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Exploratory Questions
from the Book
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