In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards, is the author asking or telling the audience?

"" byis a sermon delivered to a
congregation in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. The sermon was composed in the context of
the Great Awakening, a strongly Calvinist religious revival that occurred in mid-eighteenth
century United States, and was concerned with the growth of more moderate forms of Christianity,
especially Latitudinarianism and deism.

In the wake of the religious wars and
upheavals of the seventeenth century, many Christians felt that rather than be divided over
minute points of dogma, Christians should emphasize the reasonable and moral aspects of
Christianity, avoiding the "enthusiasm" and religious zeal which had led to the
horrors of religious wars. Edwards, Whitfield, and other preachers of the Great Awakening,
however, saw this form of moderate rationale belief as a slippery slope leading to religious
indifference or atheism.

Edwards' sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God", is intended to terrify the audience into abandoning their complacency and
returning to a passionate and zealous faith, based, among other things, on being terrified of
the horrors of eternal damnation. Edwards does not ask his audience anything, but
tells them what to believe and how to believe. The sermon is dogmatic rather than
dialogic and harangues its hearers with great power and confidence. Rather than exploring
alternative readings of the Bible or religious traditions, Edwards in this sermon takes the
substance of his beliefs for granted, and uses them as a foundation to exhort the readers to an
intense emotional commitment to their religious faith.