By Michael Davies

Sleek interpreting is a learn of the writings of the 17th-century preacher John Bunyan, writer of The Pilgrim's growth. The booklet reassesses the connection among Bunyan's theology and his narrative sort, redefining them either in keeping with a extra particular knowing of 17th-century "Calvinism", and a extra "postmodernist" knowing of narrative.

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Any understanding of Bunyan's notion of grace is meaningless, however, without a comprehension of the strictly covenantal nature of his theology, a full exposition of which comprises Bunyan's early treatise The Doctrine of Law and Grace Unfolded (1659). Essentially, Bunyan's covenant theology delineates a doctrine of salvation and damnation based on the crucial juxtaposition of the covenant of grace with the covenant of works. For Bunyan, only by being within the compass of the former can salvation truly be attained; being under the covenant of works, on the other hand, 31 Richard L.

This approach has been challenged, however, by the likes of Bierma and McGiffert (see n. 12 to this Chapter). 50 See McGiffert, ‘From Moses to Adam’, 152–3. 51 Wallace, Puritans and Predestination, 114. BUNYAN'S THEOLOGY OF GRACE 35 The law has, in fact, two important roles to perform in Bunyan's theology. First, and in what may appear an ironic fashion, it is only through the law that one can begin one's conversion towards saving grace in the first place. This is not because good deeds or an adherence to the law lead to a holy righteousness, of course, but quite the opposite.

H. ), Conventicle and Parnassus, 252–5. 27 Campbell, ‘Fishing in Other Men's Waters’, 150. See F. R Leavis, ‘The Pilgrim's Progress’, in Anna Karenina and Other Essays (London: Chatto and Windus, 1967), 33–48, and Leavis's essay ‘Literature and Society’ in The Common Pursuit (London: Chatto and Windus, 1952), 188–92. For an assessment of other critical approaches that remove theology from Bunyan's writings see Galen Johnson, ‘ “Be Not Extream”’. 28 While we may only be able to marvel at the desire to recognize the ‘inhumanity’ of Bunyan's literary art, Davie's reaction is significant.

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