Centring Bunyan: Macaulay, Froude, Hale White

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 17; p. 68
• Main Author: Newey, Vincent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2013
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Bunyan, John (1628-88); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]Bunyan is 'almost the only writer who ever gave to the abstract the interest of the concrete'. [...]as we yet know, morality rests upon a sense of obligation; and obligation has no meaning except as implying a Divine command [...] [...]duty' can be presented to us in a shape which will compel our recognition of it with equal or superior force, the passing away of 'the conviction of sin' can operate only to obscure our aspiration after a high ideal of life and character. [...]the extrapolation dominates as Hale White settles into reflections on the lot of ordinary humanity: [...]he remembered that by and by the day broke, and Christian cried, 'He hath turned the shadow of death into the morning.