Jonathan Edwards on Spiders

John Irish reveals the surprisingly Enlightened views of a hellfire preacher.

- John Irish

On July 8, 1741, the parishioners at the Congregational Church in Enfield, Connecticut, were in for a real treat. They were going to hear a sermon from a visiting minister, one of the leaders of the First Great Awakening, a religious movement which had begun in 1738 and was now sweeping across the American colonies. That address would go on to become the most famous sermon associated with this movement, and the most famous work from that minister, if not the most famous sermon in American history. The minister was Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), one of the leaders of the ‘New Light’ movement, and the sermon was titled ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’. It would embody all the characteristics of sermons preached from New Light ministers: strong emotional appeal, descriptive language, and a message designed to get people back into the church from fear of eternal damnation. In those senses, it was a pretty standard sermon for the place and the time. Indeed, Edwards hardly got a peep out of his own congregation a few weeks before when he delivered the sermon there. But when he delivered it at Enfield, the congregation was so distraught and overwhelmed with emotion that they asked him to stop before he had finished it. He and the local minister then went into the congregation and tried to comfort individuals who were overcome with grief.

The most famous part of the sermon includes a vivid analogy involving a spider: