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Hell-fire preaching is a religious term that refers to preaching which calls attention to the final destiny of the impenitent, which usually focuses extremely on describing the painful torment in the Hereafter as a method to invite people to religion. There may be degrees of emphasis, and degrees of extent to which hell is emphasized in the khutbah (sermon or speech in Islam).[1][2]
But whereas his sermon "The Justice of God..." is the more satisfactory example of Edwards' hellfire preaching, it is his sermon preached at Enfield, Connecticut—"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"—by which later generations came to know Jonathan Edwards.
Perhaps the epitome of the image of the hellfire preacher is Jonathan Edwards, whose sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' depicted the realities of hell so clearly that it was said the hearers could smell the sulfur burning.
Most famous was Charles Grandison Finney (1792–1875), Presbyterian hell-fire preacher who used "protracted meetings," colloquial language, direct reference to name of people present, the "anxious bench" for those awaiting conversion, and other unusual methods.
C. S. Lewis was brought up in Northern Ireland where that extraordinary hell-fire preacher W. P. Nicholson had exerted so great an influence.
Apart from being an eminent theologian, Ibn Karram was also a hellfire preacher.