Freedom of Religion

Edwards presents religion in America through a passionate, fiery sermon.  He uses his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," as a scare tactic to force the congregation to accept Christ.  Throughout his sermon he mentions how people are nothing without God, and without God they will receive eternal damnation.  Edwards portrays God as an angry man with great power and wrath, who holds disbelievers in his hand: "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked "(4).  On the other hand, Stevens presents religion in America in a more calming way than Edwards.  Stevens presents religion in the form of nature, showing how earth's beauty is a religion in itself.  Even though the woman in the poem did not physically go to a church service, she enjoyed the beauty of the earth as her means of a service.  In fact, experiencing nature led her to thinking about Jesus dying and being buried in the tomb: "...A voice that cries,' The tomb in Palestine/ Is not the porch of spirits lingering./ It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay'" (107-109).  "Sunday Morning" relates to Thoreau's Love of Nature.  Thoreau's sanctuary was not within the confines of a church, bur rather under the cathedral of an open sky.  Next, Hawthorne presents religion in America through the journey of a Christian man, Goodman Brown, who takes a walk through the woods with the devil.  During Brown's journey he is shown the hypocrisy of the so-called Christians in his society.  He learns that no one is who he or she appears to be; therefore, he loses all trust in the members of his society: "On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because the anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain" (paragraph 73).  Brown even loses trust in his wife, whose name is ironically Faith. 

Edwards' sermon differs from Hawthorne's story in that Edwards' sermon ends on a positive note.  Despite the sermon's overall harsh nature, the ending gives the congregation the opportunity to accept Christ instead of going to hell: "And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners..." (paragraph 16).  Unlike Edwards' sermon, Hawthorne's story ends on a negative note.  After seeing all of the hypocrisy within the Christians, Brown is left angry and distrustful of the Christians in his society.  Ironically, having those feelings of anger and distrust are only leading him further from God, rather than closer. 

"Sunday Morning" represents a different kind of religion than the Christianity found within the previous two stories.  In this poem, nature is considered a type of religion.  A basic difference between "Sunday Morning" and the other two works can be found in line one of stanza three: "Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth."  The difference is obvious, as Jesus came from a human mother, and Jove had "an inhuman birth".


"Sunday Morning" is the most contemporary view of religion in today's society.  The poem implies that true paradise is found in the present tense in nature, not in an uncertain hereafter: "Neither the golden underground, nor isle/ Melodious, where spirits gat them home,/ Nor visionary south, nor cloudy palm,/ Remote on heaven's hill, that has endured/ As April's green endures..." (53-57). 

question: Was Goodman Brown's journey a dream, or did he really take a walk through the woods with the devil?