Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Lesson Plan

Brooke Kistner Lesson Plan Introduction: Topic: Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Length: 90 minutes Standards of Learning 11.3: Given Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and recalling previous day’s lecture on Great Awakening/Enlightenment Era/Age of Reason, students will be able to identify relationships between American religious literature, history and culture. Learning Objectives:  Given a lecture on the Great Awakening/Enlightenment Era/Age of Reason, students will be able to identify specific important events during those years.  Given this lecture and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, students will be able to identify connections between American literature, history and culture of the Great Awakening/Enlightenment Era/Age of Reason.  Given an in-depth analysis of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, students will be able to compose a persuasive essay. Content: The students will learn about Jonathan Edwards’s life. Students will then make a connection between Edwards’s life and the time period while reading Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Materials: Textbooks containing the sermon, PowerPoint presentation, a dozen donuts, journals (notebooks), Great Awakening/Enlightenment Era/Age of Reason lecture notes, summaries/discussion questions from reading (given as homework the previous night) Teaching and Learning Sequence: Introduction: (3 mins) Call attention to the front of the room. Inform the students we will be discussing last night’s reading of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and yesterday’s lecture on Great Awakening/Enlightenment Era/Age of Reason. After the discussion, the students will be presented with a challenge. Have students get out notes from yesterday, discussion questions (HW) and their journals. Anticipatory Set: (15 mins) On the PowerPoint presentation, display a picture of a person ridiculously dressed (or if a student can be asked to put on prop clothes before class). The teacher will start a discussion about what the students think of person in the picture. After students offer their opinion, they will attempt to persuade the rest of the class to see the photograph as they do, via their journals. Once students have been given about 7 minutes to write, a few students may share their thoughts.

Lesson Development: Give a short lecture on Jonathan Edwards’s life: (15 mins) Jonathan Edwards 1703-1758 - He was converted at age 18 despite several years of being troubled of spiritual matters - 24 yrs. he became assistant to his grandfather, then married Sarah Perrepont. Grandfather died in 1729, and he took over - He caused the church to become troubled about spiritual matters - 1736-1746 he published 4 works that investigate the Holy Spirit’s work in people’s lives - 1741 he preached his most famous sermon: Sinners….which essentially was at the beginning of the Great Awakening - People began opposing his preaching - He tried to reinstate the Puritan practice of regular candidate for membership: to give full, public testimony of how God worked in his life and brought him to conversion - Eventually people became so upset with his ministry he offered to resign, yet his offer was refused… in 1750, church council did vote him off and he was asked to leave the church - He then moved to Massachusetts when offered president of Princeton, but he died of smallpox before he took position Help Students highlight yesterday’s lecture: (5 mins) - Precursors for Enlightenment can be traced to 17th century and earlier- associated with the years 1730s and 1740s - Didn’t occur in one place specifically, but throughout the whole nation - Inspired the Declaration of Independence, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Bill of Rights - Reason regarded as basis of authority, not God - George Whitfield continued the movement across the colonies - The number of churches doubled between 1740 and 1780 - Great Awakening dealt with church corruption caused by Half-Way Covenant - Jonathan Edwards helped the movement in America - Age of reason described as deistic (natural religion) - Great Awakening resulted in doctrinal changes and influenced social and political thought Pose the following questions about the reading to class: ( 45 mins) - Thinking about your persuasion paragraphs, what sort of argument does Edwards use to reach his audience? Also, what were his motives in delivering this sermon? (He was trying to persuade the people to recognize they are headed down a path of destruction for their acceptance of the Half-Way Covenant; direct them to specific examples of this. As part of his persuasion, he uses strong convictions against the church. He was driven by the corruption in the church and

their deviation from scripture. Students may offer a variety of answers, but should be encouraged to show examples for support.) -

How effective is his argument? What makes his argument effective? (It’s pretty effective, in that, eventually he was asked to leave the church and people opposed his preaching. He uses scripture to support his argument; which, with the point he’s trying to make about the HalfWay Covenant, scripture would seem relevant to his audience. Students will be directed to specific parts of the sermon that support this idea. Students may offer other answers, but encourage them to direct the class to passages in the sermon that support their response.)

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Who is his audience? How do you think his audience responded to the sermon? (His audience is the congregation he preaches to every Sunday. Answers will vary. But, the majority of them, while hearing this, didn’t think Edwards was speaking to them. They possibly assumed he was speaking to someone else around them. Some may have thought he was speaking right to them, and caused a great fear within their hearts. Again, whatever answer the students give, ask them to refer to the sermon to support their conclusion.)

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How would you have acted if you were in this audience? (Answers will vary. Students should be encouraged to offer support for their thoughts.)

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Recalling yesterday’s lecture, what evidence of the Great Awakening and Edwards’s culture can we see in the sermon? What sort of doctrinal changes do you think occurred after his sermon? (Students should recall Edwards began the Awakening movement in America, so we see a lot in his sermon: conviction of deviating from scripture, people’s choice to turn their own ways, their choice to lean on reason and others…Students should be encouraged, as before, to give evidence by pointing the class to specific parts of the sermon.)

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How did Edwards’s culture affect his lifestyle? (He chose to live a life according to what he believed scripture said, instead of following the culture to lean on reason and logic. Because of his lifestyle, many churches were started to attack the Half- Way Covenant.)

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If any questions arise throughout the discussion, students may pose them. Students will then be allowed to pose their discussion questions.

Closure: (12 mins) Recap on the connections between the Great Awakening/ The Enlightenment Era and Edwards’s sermon. Display a real five dollar bill to the students. Tell them they are to pretend the teacher is a wealthy veterinarian with three young children. The students are to write a well supported essay (no longer than a page hand-written) attempting to persuade the veterinarian (teacher) he/she deserves the five dollar bill. Tomorrow the teacher will read the essays and determine a winner of the five dollars. Evaluation: Assessment will be completed through students’ interaction during the class discussion and answers offered. They will also be evaluated on their persuasion essays, in how they develop their argument, support their position and cater to their audience. Students will receive participation credit for the discussion, and a homework grade for the essay. Reference: http://www.doe/virginia.gov Chin, Beverly Ann & Wolfe, Denny. 2000. Glencoe Literature The Reader’s Choice: American Literature. New York, New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill.