Julie Borrego
English 48a
Journal for Jonathan Edwards


"And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day where in Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stand in calling and crying with a loud vice to poor sinner;..." (Norton 435)

"But yet, it was not long after my recovery, befor I fell again into my old ways of sin." (Norton 387)



Summary: The quote from Sinner in the Hands of An Angrey God is almost like a light at the end of the tunnel. After Edwards describes that everyone is headed for hell, you can at least save your self through Christ.

Ideas: I think how awful it might have been to have such guilty feeling over basic natural thoughts and Ideas. That if you sinned you would burn for eternity in hell. Edwards word remind me of going to church and feeling guilty for liking music, or wearing certain clothes. The ideas that I would not be in heaven and see my Grandmother again scared me.

I think for some people during the 1700’s needed religion to help them make sense of all that they encountered and endured. That needed to find excuses for why things happened to people and excused for their actions as well, to place everything in a nice little package at state it is the way of God, can help people survive and keep on going.

Also to have hope that you would one day have no suffering in a world that is so unpredictable and full of pain, death and suffering. Would help people also endure and have hope for something.

So in someways I understand the need for religion, but then I don’t understand the need to make people feel bad for every little thing.