Edwards's sermon could be emotional (pathos), but during the class discussion, we found out that the way he delivered the sermon was calm and somewhat less passionate. Therefore it could be said that the greatest factor of his sermon was ethos.
In order for an orator to drive fear out of his audience, he needs the ethos. If it were somebody random delivering the speech, it might not have been so affective. The sermon was so affective because the speaker's reputation and his social rank enabled him to drive fear out of the audience.
-Joanne
I actually believe that it's mostly made of pathos. I agree with you on the logos part, but I think that Edwards was definately appealing to his audience's fear of eternal damnation. This goes back to the propagada techniques, and the first one being fear.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Edwards delivered the sermon with a degree of calmness, we discussed in class how this solemnness can sometimes be more frightening that an absurd display of passion. I think we can all agree that, for at least the day that he delivered this sermon in a town, Edwards had control of the town, and all the ethos he wanted. Conversely, consider Abigail Williams, an orphan, and the rest of the accusers in the witch trials (in real life, not in The Crucible). What ethos did they have? Yet they still made the people of a town kill each other because of the fear of the devil. This just shows how really anybody can appeal to the fears of a population, and, if they attract enough attention, accomplish anything they want without ethos. Sure, Edwards had ethos when delivering the sermon, but it wasn't the central theme of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God".
-Audrey
I would actually say that the speech, from its historical context, has a good balance of ethos, pathos and logos. Jonathan Edwards, as a prime theologian of his error, would certainly have commanded a good deal of respect. To balance this ethos, there are a good deal of bible quotes, making up the logos, along with his use of fear and emotion (the pathos). Overall, even if his sermon may lean a little more toward pathos, I would still consider it relatively balanced.
ReplyDelete-Bryce C.
I think that while the logos relies heavily on Bible quotes, it also is represented more than just those. Edwards has his sermon organized very well, centering around the phrase "their foot shall slide in due time" gives the sermon a tied-together, logical method. The way the sermon is broken up into a list and has a summary at the end of the list. He separated the application part of his speech and organizes his logic around common ideas. I would say that logos isn't underrepresented. As for ethos and pathos, they are equally represented and the triangle is for the most part equilateral.
ReplyDelete-- tori