6. Galatians through history

‘Galatians through history’ studies the rich reception history of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which is one of the shorter works in the Bible. At the turn of the 4th century, it helped shape the new worlds which would emerge as the Roman Empire embraced Christianity. At the Reformation, it was one of the central texts for Martin Luther. Luther’s commentary was a key text for John Bunyan and for the Wesleys. It is important to look at how Paul deals in his letter with the central issue of Law observance and consider how later interpreters of his letter used his ideas and images to shape the life of the Churches in their very different situations.

JOÃO CABRAL DE MELO NETO: UMA PEREGRINAÇÃO SEVERINA

O desafio a que nos propomos neste artigo é comparar o movimento migratório dos retirantes do nordeste brasileiro do séc. XX, tipificado na forma poética por João Cabral de Melo Neto, com um outro, mais individual, representado por uma natureza onírica, formulado em prosa por John Bunyan, na Inglaterra setecentista. Referimo-nos à obra icónica do protestantismo do séc. XVII, “O Peregrino”. Procuramos entender que relações poderão ser estabelecidas entre ambas as narrativas peregrinadoras, tendo em conta as evidentes diferenças de estilo literário, enquadramento histórico e religioso, e intenções presumidas dos autores, e ainda de que forma ambos estabelecem um discurso dialéctico com a finitude e a morte.

English Protestantism (1520–1700)

This chapter examines conversion from the English Reformers to John Bunyan. Beginning with William Tyndale’s translation and annotations of the New Testament, the early evangelical movement promoted a religious culture that uplifted conversion as an ideal of Christian life. By the end of the sixteenth century, Puritan practical divinity represented the first concerted effort to make conversion the standard that separated true Christianity from its counterfeits. In journals, diaries, treatises, and autobiographies, Puritans scrutinized their spiritual state and described conversion as a profound, overwhelming, totally transforming experience. In preaching and catechizing, they uplifted conversion as the sine qua non of the Christian life. Their rhetoric of conversion, including their detailed morphologies of conversion, became a ubiquitous feature of Protestant discourse in the seventeenth century. By century’s end, not only in England but also on the Continent and in New England, a reformulated understanding of conversion transcended ecclesiastical structures and increasingly centered on the individual’s direct relationship to God.

The Print Culture of Early Nonconformity

The production, dissemination, and reading of printed texts were essential to the development of early nonconformity. This chapter examines the importance of print culture through a discussion of: the religious output of the press, its volume and generic range; the homiletic, confessional, experiential, educational, doctrinal, apologetical, and controversial incentives to authorship and publication; the various means by which government agencies sought to control or censor its production; and the expedients adopted by authors and by printers to circumvent these efforts. Evidence is drawn from a number of little-known texts and authors, as well as from such canonical writers as John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton.

O PROGRESSO DO PEREGRINO E A ÉTICA DA CONVERSÃO INDIVIDUALISTA

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a alegoria religiosa The Pilgrim's Progress, do escritor inglês John Bunyan, buscando encontrar no enredo e no contexto histórico que se entrelaça à obra, alguns elementos que nos permitam compreender o ethos da vida peregrina desse indivíduo em busca da sua salvação. Assim, considerando que a obra foi escrita como resposta ao conturbado cenário religioso e político da Inglaterra do século XVII, analisaremos o enredo, os dogmas e os símbolos religiosos presentes no livro, buscando compreender a relação entre fé e vida “mundana”, indivíduo e comunidade e, principalmente, o valor das narrativas de devoção na experiência de conversão, para, então, entender como tais valores, expostos nas potentes alegorias de Bunyan, geraram um universo lúdico e concreto que validou uma ética religiosa, profundamente individualista, que se tornou a marca do conversionismo puritano, e que continua a fazer sentido, mesmo para pessoas que não compartilham do contexto histórico e social do escritor.

Twenty-First-Century Readings of E.M. Forster's 'Maurice'

This is the first book-length study of Forster’s posthumously published novel. Nine essays focus exclusively on Maurice and its dynamic afterlives in literature, film and new media during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Begun in 1913 and revised over almost 50 years, Maurice became a defining text in Forster’s work and a canonical example of queer fiction. Yet the critical tendency to read Maurice primarily as a ‘revelation’ of Forster’s homosexuality has obscured important biographical, political and aesthetic contexts for this novel. This collection places Maurice among early twentieth-century debates about politics, philosophy, religion, gender, Aestheticism and allegory. Essays explore how the novel interacts with literary predecessors and contemporaries including John Bunyan, Oscar Wilde, Havelock Ellis and Edward Carpenter, and how it was shaped by personal relationships such as Forster’s friendship with Florence Barger. They close-read the textual variants of Forster’s manuscripts and examine the novel’s genesis and revisions. They consider the volatility of its reception, analysing how it galvanizes subsequent generations of writers and artists including Christopher Isherwood, Alan Hollinghurst, Damon Galgut, James Ivory, and twenty-first-century online fanfiction writers. What emerges from the volume is the complexity of the novel, as a text and as a cultural phenomenon.