Beginners in the Midst of a Loving God
In the 1730s, a religious movement now known as the First Great Awakening was sweeping across the American British colonies. A response to dwindling church attendance amid growing interest in secularism, the movement is known for its less formal, more personal and emotional preaching style.
The religious fervor reached its zenith when the fiery preacher Jonathan Edwards delivered his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
The title encapsulates Edwards’ theology and what would become fundamentalist Christianity over the next two centuries: all humans are sinners who must ask for redemption and forgiveness from their extremely pissed-off God, else suffer a 50 Marquis de Sades of Grey style eternal torture in Hell.
Like most theologians, Edwards is complicated, brilliant, infuriating, and thought-provoking. He preached fire and brimstone and a particularly repugnant form of Calvinism, yet he is one of the first clergy, perhaps the first, to use the word consciousness to describe God, clearly understanding God as the interconnecting force of all being.
