Abstract Language

abstract language: language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places. The observable or "physical" is usually described in concrete language

"I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land."
                                                            -Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
                                                                       by Frederick Douglass

Christianity is not a physical entity, it is a religion, however Douglass describes it with actions. He is describing the affect the false religion has, and what it promotes. By using these actions to describe the religion Douglass is calling people to action. His audience, who would have been Caucasian Christian Northerners, would have been appalled at this, the opposite of the Christianity they knew. Douglass uses this to point out injustices and make the people want a change and to work for the end of the institution of slavery.