Bunyan's Judges

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 19; p. 53
• Main Author: Knoppers, Laura L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2015
• Subjects: Anxiety; Bible; British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Bunyan, John (1628-88); Christianity; Criminal sentences; English literature; Exegesis & hermeneutics; God; Imprisonment; Reading; Spirituality; Theology
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]Bunyan does not simply oppose a divine judge and threatened eschatological punishment to the present day injustices of human judges over the persecuted godly. [...]Bunyan wants to convict (that is, persuade) his readers, but such a process causes anxiety and unease when conviction spills over into judgment or condemnation, as there can be no epistemological certainty of salvation - or damnation - in this world. [...]I want to follow the important recent lead of Kathleen Lynch - an exception to the introspective readings of the text - who comments that 'Grace Abounding declared to the world the triumph of experiential religion over wrongful persecution. Self-examined, self-accused, the sinful conscience condemns itself: 'as fast I say, as God chargeth Conscience will cry out, guilty, guilty; Lord, guilty of all, of every whit, I remember clearly all the Crimes thou layest before me. [...]I say, will Conscience be a witness against the Soul, in the day of God' (p. 269).