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OverviewGraceful Reading offers a new way of understanding Bunyan's theology and his narrative art, examining and reassessing the complex and interdependent relationship between them. Michael Davies begins by proposing that Bunyan's theology is far from obsessed with the forbidding Calvinist doctrine of predestination and its corollary tendency towards painful introspection. Bunyan's is, rather, a comfortable doctrine, in which the believer is encouraged to accept salvation through the far more assuring terms of Bunyan's covenant theology - those of faith and grace. The book then reassesses how Bunyan's narrative style is informed by this theology. Works such as Grace Abounding and The Pilgrim's Progress reveal a profound sensitivity to narrative forms and reading practices, as they aim to inculcate in their readers a self-consciousness about reading itself which is instrumental in the very process of spiritual instruction, in seeing 'things unseen'. This is a study, therefore, which asserts a radically different way of reading of Bunyan's writings, both through the terms of seventeenth-century covenant theology, and through some distinctly 'postmodernist' ideas about narrative practice. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Michael Davies (, Lecturer in English at the University of Leicester)Publisher: Oxford University Press Imprint: Oxford University Press Dimensions: Width: 14.40cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 22.30cm Weight: 0.001kg ISBN: 9780199242405ISBN 10: 0199242402 Pages: 412 Publication Date: 04 July 2002 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsReviewsAdvanced students and scholars may find this book interesting, particularly Davies'treatment of allegory in Pilgrim's Progress and the parallels he draws between Bunyan's narrative and postmodern theory. --Religious Studies Review<br> Davies' endeavor is a most valuable contribution to literary studies of Bunyan. --Calvin Theological JournalR<br> Davies provides an elegant and persuasive explication of the power of Bunyan's prose and brings us back in touch with the affective reality which informs Bunyan's ultimate and over-riding conviction that the language of the Bedford congregation, like that of the Bedford women, is a language of joy and consolation. * Vera J. Camden, Bunyan Studies * Author InformationMichael Davies is Lecturer in English at the University of Leicester Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |