Romanticism

Had Jonathan Edwards been able to read “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant, he would have disagreed with almost everything the poem conveyed. Although they may have found a common ground when considering the insignificance of man, their commonalities would end there. For one, their basic belief structures were entirely different. These opposing opinions would inevitably clash if their views on how to live were compared. This fundamental confrontation of religious convictions would finally place the two men entirely opposite each other in contemplating death and the afterlife. With so few congruent beliefs and a plethora of discord, Jonathan Edwards and William Cullen Bryant would find it hard to agree on anything.
The one thing they might have agreed upon was the insignificance of a single man and the general equality of all. These particular beliefs are exaggerated and restated numerous times in the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards. ...