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Bunyan, lecture 3

Bunyan, lecture 3. Analyzing particular episodes & Asking questions. I. “The Soul of Religion is the practick part” (78); “There is therefore knowledge and knowledge ”(80 ). Talkative (74 ff.) – What is the problem? What is the theological point here?

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Bunyan, lecture 3

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  1. Bunyan, lecture 3 Analyzing particular episodes & Asking questions

  2. I. “The Soul of Religion is the practick part” (78); “There is therefore knowledge and knowledge”(80) • Talkative(74 ff.) – What is the problem? What is the theological point here? • Learning by talk: “insufficiency of works”; “ignorantly live in the works of the Law”; “all is of Grace”; “things heavenly, or things earthly”; “things more Essential, or things Circumstantial” • “By an experimental confession of his Faith in Christ”(81) • “you are some peevish, or melancholly man”(82)

  3. II. Vanity Fair: a Satire on the World(85 ff) • The VF episode incorporates all known history (5000 years) (See p. 85 & note on p. 301). • The pilgrims are outsiders, strangers, in this world. Why so? See their indictment (90) & see note on p. 302. • What are the political implications of the accusations?(91) • Who are witnesses for the prosecution & the jury (91-95) • Faithful’s martyrdom recapitulates the stories of all Christian martyrs (beginning with Stephen)(95). • VF is a compressed and caustic version of the (economically centered) “world.”

  4. III. Christian & Hopeful • By-ends & Fair Speech // Expedience/casuistry(97 ff) • Lord Turn-about; Lord Time-server; Mr. Two-tongues • Christian NOTICES a NAME! (98) • Can Mr. Hold-the-World orMr. Mony-love or Mr. Save-all “go against Wind and Tide”? • Read carefully the kind of problems they consider. What is the status of “accommodation” in The Pilgrim’s Progress? • The whole population and landscape of the ‘Old Testament’ seem still to exist—Lot’s wife, p.105.

  5. IV. Doubting Castle and the Giant Despair(109-115 ff.; 118) • Deviating from the way (108); “Who could have thought????” • Folktale & romance: & an English landowner (109) • An incompetent giant • Despair & an invitation to suicide • Election seems precarious. • Hopeful’s task (112) • Fear & the comic/satiric force of the episode (cf.Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, 19) • The great escape: “the Congregation of the dead” (118).

  6. V. The role of fear in Christian’s theology: I’m giving you the evidence. What do you think? • “I fear that this burden . . . will sink me lower than the grave” (11). • “Fear followed me so hard,” (16). “fear of the lions” (42, 45) • “Have they at no time . . . convictions of sin, and so consequently fears that their state is dangerous?” (142). • “True, or right fear, is discovered by three things: • 1. By its rise . . . • 2. It driveth the soul. . . • 3. It begetteth . . . in the soul . . . “ (142). See also fears “that are wrought of God” (143). • See also “slavish fear” and “fear of the halter” (144) & the last fear: “[H]e had a horror of mind and hearty fears that he should die in that River” (148).

  7. VI. Does Christian's theology advocate religious toleration? • By-ends: “the men before us are so rigid, and love so much their own notions, and do also so lightly esteem the opinions of others, that let a man be never so godly, yet if he jumps not with them in all things, they thrust him quite out of their company” (89). • Mr. Save-all: But we read of some, that are righteous over-much, and such men’s rigidness prevails with them to judge and condemn all but themelves” (89). • Ignorance: “Gentlemen, ye be utter strangers to me, I know you not, be content to follow the religion of your country, and I will follow the religion of mine. I hope all will be well” (108). • "That is your faith, but not mine; yet mine I doubt not, is as good as yours, though I have not in my head so many whimsies as you" (129). • What’s at stake in a birthright? (123 and note)

  8. VII. Another way of asking the question: Bunyan is a dissenter. Does this dissenter’s epic tolerate dissent? • What theological ideas promote conformity? • Doctrine of the elect • The straight and narrow way • Digression & wandering are dangerous (errant). • Could a Declaration of Breda emerge from The Pilgrim’s Progress? • If Bunyan were in charge of politics, would there be a Clarendon code for Christians like Ignorance?

  9. VIII. How can you put Bunyan and Hobbes on the same map? • How might you compare the state of sin with the State of Nature? • Start your thinking with Bunyan’s expression “persons in a natural condition“ and ”They are naturally out of the good way” (138). • What is the natural condition in Bunyan? In Hobbes? • What is the altered condition in each case? What is the mechanism by which one gets out of the natural condition?

  10. IX. A link between the Restoration context and allegorical events • The “perspective glass” or telescope (119) • What are its implications? • What does a perspective glass have in common with a dream vision? • How might they be said to belong to different worlds? • Compare Faithful’s saying “I did not see him with my bodily eyes, but with the eyes of mine understanding” (135).

  11. X. How does the ending work? • Crossing over the river(147) • The narrative gets the pilgrims to the heavenly Jerusalem, but it doesn’t end there. Why do you think it ends with a glimpse of the road to Hell? • The dreamer: The dreamer is always outside the dream – looking on. Why might that be important?

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