Personification: Necessary but Dangerous

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Edwards' use of personification as an effective
rhetorical strategy?

In Johnathan Edwards sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Edwards uses
personification as an effective rhetorical strategy in order to show that God is a powerful figure,
and we will have to endure his wrath if we don’t follow Him. In this sermon, Edwards talks
about how God is holding us above Hell, and how God is the only thing keeping us from being in
Hell for eternity. He also talks about how, if we let God into our lives and in us, we will be saved
by him, and will feast in Heaven. In order to get his message through, Edwards uses many parts
of the rhetorical situation, but I will be focusing on his use of personification in the sermon.

In the very first paragraph of the sermon on page 70, Edwards says, “There is a dreadful
pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is Hell’s wide gaping mouth open…”
Edwards compares Hell’s entrance to a mouth of a hungry person or animal, and how it is ready
to chomp you whole. I believe that personification is a very powerful tool that Edwards uses
because religion and the concept of God is hard for people to wrap their minds around. It is a
very blurry concept, and we cannot relate to it because we have no physical experience with
God. So, when Edwards uses personification, he paints a picture of what he is trying to say. In
this paragraph he says, “Hell’s gaping mouth open,” in order to put these crazy concepts and
ideas in our heads in a way that we can relate to and understand. I feel as if it is impossible to
talk about this topic without using personification because us, humans, have no frame of
reference when it comes to Heaven and Hell. We are told that it is like being in the clouds, and
there are pearly white gates, and how God has outstretched arms waiting to greet us. But, in
reality, we don’t know the physical appearance of Heaven and God. The messages are told to us
using personification and imagery so we can better imagine and understand these ideas, since we
don’t have out-of-body experience. We are people, and for authors and religious leaders to use
personification in their messages is simply genius, and necessary, because we are people, not
God or angels. It is as simple as that. We don’t know anything but us, so personification is the
best tool Edwards can use. So, yes, Edwards' use of personification is extremely effective, and I
would argue, necessary in achieving his purpose. His purpose is to let God into our lives and to
be in Christ, and his use of personification makes me fearful of God. Edwards says, “Your
wickedness makes you as heavy as lead… and if God should let you go, you would immediately
sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless pit.” This scares me and makes me think
that God has full control and power over me.
Edwards also uses personification on page 71 when he says, “The bow of God’s wrath is
bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and
strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without
any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with
your blood.” Edwards scares the audience, or me at least, in believing that God is one move
away from sending me to Hell. That alone keeps me not out of Christ. However, there is danger
in using personification in religious ideas, or in anything, really. Personification creates a false
reality that may be partly true, but also puts semi false ideas into our minds. The concept that
Edwards is trying to tell is valid and good, but when he uses personification to help us relate to it
better, it skews the reality of Edward’s sermon. We truly don’t know what Heaven or God
actually looks like. But through Edward’s use of personification, we can see that God has the
power over us, but our fate can be controlled by us to an extent.

In this sermon, Edwards uses personification effectively by giving us person-like

qualities to compare Heaven and Hell to. On the other hand, he uses personification ineffectively
by skewing our perception of reality.