Religious Terror and the Nature of Evil Ari Mostow College

Upon mere glance, it becomes immediately apparent that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” share many common themes, including good versus evil, heart versus mind, and the nature of sin. Through addressing these subjects, each of the two works reveals the presence of religious terror, in ways that are both similar and different. Both texts uncover a similar fear of evil’s powerful force; however, the presence of religious terror differs across the two texts in its focus on the reasons for fearing sin, as well as the very nature and causes of sin itself.

First, the religious terror in both texts centers around the pervasiveness of evil forces and temptation. Edwards proclaims that “the devil stands ready to fall upon [people]” as soon as “God shall permit him” (194). Through further imagery of “hungry lions that see their prey,” or of a “serpent” holding “its mouth wide open” (194), Edwards defines evil as an active force. According to Edwards, people do not actively choose sin, much like the prey of lions and serpents do not willingly enter the mouths of the beasts that consume them. Rather, sin itself is accorded with more power of volition than the sinner, for...