Glimpses of Glory


Book Description

This is a major reinterpretation of John Bunyan, each of whose works, including the posthumous, is analyzed in its immediate historical context. The author draws on recent literature on depression to demonstrate that Bunyan suffered from this mood disorder as a young man and then used this experience to help mold his literary works.




John Bunyan


Book Description

Presented here is the third edition of John Brown's definitive biography of the great English preacher and writer John Bunyan (1628-1688). Bunyan is best known for his allegory 'The Pilgrim's Progress' but wrote numerous other works including Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. A tinker by trade, he was a popular preacher whose call to preach was recognized by his congregation. This was no formal recognition and upon the restoration of 1660, Bunyan was imprisoned when he refused to cease preaching without a license. A twelve-year imprisonment followed, during which Bunyan did much of his writing. During his later years Bunyan enjoyed immense influence, and his services were demanded in almost every part of England. He died August 31, 1688, in London.













Space and the Eighteenth-Century English Novel


Book Description

In this challenging and illustrated study, first published in 1990, Simon Varey relates the idea of space in the major novels of Defoe, Fielding and Richardson to its use in the theory and practice of eighteenth-century architecture. Concepts of divine design, expressed in the work of philosophers and theologians, introduced an ideological element to the notion of space which gave it a heightened significance in contemporary thought. Professor Varey's central argument is that space becomes a political instrument used to establish conformity, assert power and give form to the aspirations of social classes. He draws on a wide range of architectural books, both English and European, and on the example of Bath (focusing in particular on its chief architect in the eighteenth century, John Wood). The discussion of novels such as Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones and Clarissa examines narrative as a form of spatial design, the use of architectural imagery to describe people, and the political control of social space.




The Diary of Andrew Fuller, 1780-1801


Book Description

Despite his prominent role during the last quarter of the eighteenth century in promoting evangelical Calvinism among British Particular Baptists, only portions of the diary of Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), one of the most important surviving manuscripts from that century, have appeared in print in various volumes published between 1816 and 1882, portions usually inaccurately transcribed and highly editorialized. The current edition is the first complete and accurate transcription of Fuller’s diary based on the sole surviving volume now residing at Bristol Baptist College. This edition, with exhaustive identifications, notes, and valuable appendices for students of Baptist history, provides a fascinating glimpse into Fuller’s ministry at Soham and Kettering during a period (1780-1801) when he became the titular head of the Particular Baptists as a result of his preaching throughout Northamptonshire and surrounding counties; his writing, such as his influential work, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785); and his multi-national work as founding secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society (1792), a position he diligently maintained until his death in 1815, having left a legacy unequalled by any other minister of his generation.




Catalogue


Book Description




Life of John Bunyan


Book Description

"All who have undertaken to take an estimate of Bunyan's literary genius call special attention to the richness of his imaginative power. Few writers indeed have possessed this power in so high a degree. In nothing, perhaps, is its vividness more displayed than in the reality of its impersonations. The dramatis persons are not shadowy abstractions, moving far above us in a mystical world, or lay figures ticketed with certain names, but solid men and women of our own flesh and blood, living in our own everyday world, and of like passions with ourselves. Many of them we know familiarly; there is hardly one we should be surprised to meet any day. This lifelike power of characterization belongs in the highest degree to 'The Pilgrim's Progress.' It is hardly inferior in "The Holy War," though with some exceptions the people of 'Mansoul' have failed to engrave themselves on the popular memory as the characters of the earlier allegory have done. The secret of this graphic power, which gives 'The Pilgrim's Progress' its universal popularity, is that Bunyan describes men and women of his own day, such as he had known and seen them. They are not fancy pictures, but literal portraits."--Edmund Venables, M.A. (Author) - Amazon.com