Jonathan Edwards' Sermons Literary Elements

Religious sermon/Christian literature/Theology

Various: New England, Holy Land, Heaven, Hell, Garden of Evil, etc.

As these are sermons being delivered to members of a congregation encouraging or discouraging behavior, the perspective is generally written in the second-person perspective using the universal “you.”

Various: educational, uplifting, apocalyptic, judgmental, instruction, self-deprecating, etc.

Protagonist: God, Jesus Christ. Antagonist: Sin, the Devil, evil, wickedness.

The conflict at the heart of all of Edwards’ sermons is Good versus Evil.

The climax of every sermon is that reminder that Good ultimately always triumphs over Evil because God embodies goodness. Mankind, however, is born evil and can attain salvation only through the grace of God’s Goodness by accepting Christ as their savior.

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In juxtaposing the serenity that comes with believing in Christ with that experienced by those who do not, Edwards briefly puts aside his typically verbose construction in preference of simple understatement: (only to immediate follow with a 56-word sentence almost all of which is descriptive metaphorical imagery): “Their peace is stupidity.”

Edwards is fond of alluding to ancient Greek philosophy as a metaphor for the divine light of Jesus: “Wisdom was a thing that the Greeks admired; but Christ is the true light of the world.”

The imagery that is most famously associated with the sermons of Edwards is also—probably not coincidentally—one of the most terrifying to be found throughout the truly prodigious volume of his literary output: “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire”

Whatever else one may find fault with Edwards’ theology, one thing that has to be admired about him is that—unlike almost every modern-day minister—he never shied away from addressing the peculiar paradoxes of Christian doctrine. One particularly notable example is a sermon titled “The Eternity of Hell’s Torments” in which he takes on one without any hesitation a seemingly irreconcilable paradox: “First, I shall briefly show that it is not inconsistent with the justice of God to inflict an eternal punishment… Second, I am to show that it is not inconsistent with the mercy of God, to inflict an eternal punishment on wicked men.” One may well fail to be convinced by the logic of argument, but respect the man for not walking away from this fight.

The Character Of Paul An Example To Christians” commits to the theme of its title by literally proceeding to expend more than 18,000 words drawing parallels between the events of the life of Paul and what Christians stand to gain by following those examples.

“Many Mansions” is a sermon entirely devoted to synecdoche. It opens with a quote from the Book of John: “In my Father’s house are many mansions” and then proceeds to explore in detail the metaphorical concept of “house” as synecdoche for heaven and “mansions” as rooms enough for everybody.

The sermon titled “The Church’s Marriage to Her Sons, and to Her God” pursues a theme built upon personification established in the scriptural verse of Isaiah which, nevertheless, Edwards sees fits to explain using personification of his own:” It is the church, and not the hills and valleys of the land of Canaan, that is God’s bride, or the Lamb’s wife.”