Melancholy and the Care of the Soul: Religion, Moral Philosophy and Madness in Early Modern England

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 12; p. 128
• Main Author: Sim, Stuart
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2006
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); English literature; Philosophy; Religion

For Calvinists, religious despair was a necessary stage on the road to salvation, and Bunyan scholars are familiar with how the author deployed it to that effect in both Grace Abounding and The Pilgrim 's Progress. By the later seventeenth century, however, Anglican clergymen are increasingly s...