Bunyan's Daring Compassion: Much-afraid and Changing Attitudes to Suicide in Late Seventeenth-Century England

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 26; pp. 28 - 54
• Main Authors: Foster, Lori, Zinck, Arlette
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2022
• Subjects: 18th century; Daughters; Donne, John (1572-1631); Fear & phobias; Individualism; Middle Ages; Reading; Religion; Spirituality; Theology; United Kingdom > UK; England
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]the episode connects directly to three things: an intriguing historical shift in attitudes regarding suicide that is evident in Bunyan's England when he was completing The Second Part; a personal link to the much talked about suicide of a fellow Christian minister connected to Bunyan and his parishioners; and an appreciation of the nuance and complexity of Bunyan's theological vision and its allegorical representation. The Historical Context In their study of suicide in England, social historians Michael MacDonald and Terence Murphy trace the evolution of civic customs regarding suicide from the late middle ages into the eighteenth century.3 It is important to note that the word 'suicide' is anachronistically applied to this moment in history. In his study Mortal Thoughts: Religion, Secularity and Identity in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture, Brian Cummings provides a history of the term 'suicide' and its linkages to early formulations like 'self-homicide' and 'self-slaughter', which he argues Shakespeare 'made up'.4 The OED confirms that the term is rarely used before the eighteenth century. The language of the day borrowed from the Latin: felo de se described the illegal act of self-slaughter, while a verdict of non compos mentis described one who ended his or her own life in a state of mental incompetence.