The Unbearable Inner Light: John Bunyan's Controversy with the Quakers

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 14; p. 34
• Main Author: Camden, Vera J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2010
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Bunyan, John (1628-88); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]any doctrine that exalts the inner life, and the leadings of one's own spirit, ushers in calamity. [...]it cannot be over-emphasized that Bunyan' s first published work was written against Quaker doctrine, wherein he contends for the scriptures' testimony to the work of Jesus in history: 'it pleased me much to contend with great earnestness for the Word of Faith, and the remission of sins by the Death and Sufferings of Jesus'.9 His pleasure derives from fighting for the objective truth of Christ's work, justifying his calling to publish, fortifying his convictions and arguments. In such diversions from more formal or traditional hortation, Bunyan discloses and develops his identity in a defensive exposition that takes its impetus from contention. [...]Bunyan's early tracts against the Quakers both partake of the repetitive structure that Roger Sharrock identifies as tiresome but typical of the popular Puritan sermon of the time, while adding to this structure an often circular and nagging style of exposition revealing of his preoccupation with the limits of his own knowledge of God, himself, and reality. By elevating the inner light, they make humanity more divine; by diminishing the historical life, death, and miraculous resurrection of Jesus, they diminish his nature, and the ultimate moment of his judgment of human sin. [...]while for Bunyan, human guilt for sin signals the radical separation between God and man, the recognition of which is an absolute precondition to spiritual communion, for the Quakers, humanity's potential knowledge of the inner light of Christ within will lead to communion with the divine, and ultimate selfillumination. [...]they tell us, since they know social history we don't know, which sect Bunyan must have had in mind when he created his character Ignorance and which particular judge is glanced at in Hategood. Since they know Calvin's and many another theological tract that they suppose we haven't read, they explain to us the exact theological import of each item or event in the allegory.