We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Part III - Uses of Scripture for Fiction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2021
Chapter 6 traces the appearance of the Bible as a series of legal or forensic documents (book, scroll, certificate) in part one of Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) and then as a series of entertaining things (food, digestive, mirror) in part two (1684). The shift in appearance from legal document to entertaining thing shows Bunyan’s fiction moving through channels already carved out by the circulation of the scriptures in late-seventeenth-century England: a literary channel in which the Bible was held to be the supreme book of wisdom; a legal channel in which the Bible was used to justify state authority; and a domestic channel in which the Bible was used to speak the language of intimacy. This chapter also touches on writing about the Bible by John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and Mary Rowlandson to show how Bunyan uses scripture not to imagine life-after-death in the Celestial City but life on the outskirts of that City, here in this world.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
