"By These Words I was Sustained"

A spiritual autobiography frequently creates its own structure; that is, spiritual autobiographer documents and affirms providential design he believes gives order and meaning to his life. Biblical narratives may suggest paradigms on which human models description of his journey to his heavenly home and to his new identity as a child of God. The particular Puritan version of this structure became a specific generic paradigm, and in many ways, John Bunyan's Grace Abounding (1666) exemplified classical Puritan conversion.' Bunyan's autobiographical selfpresentation in Grace Abounding certainly follows traditional patterns of conviction of great sin, conversion through God's revelation and grace, and post-conversion trials and resolution, From beginning until point of first and most important conversion, Bunyan stresses that his life followed a providential design. God allows him to attend school, to read and write; God judges him by nearly letting him drown. When he swore and blasphemed, he wished with all my heart that I might be a little childe again, that my Father might learn me to speak without this wicked way of swearing....2 He records specific assaults on God's authority, and he is punished with terrible dreams and visions. God chastizes him for playing sports, particularly cat, a game with a piece of wood and a club. Providence also gives him blessings, such as a devout wife who eventually leads him to God. And through God's mercy he escapes death from an adder's sting, and from a musket bullet. Many readers have found traditional providential pattern of spiritual autobiography a satisfying and complete description of narrative structure of Grace Abounding. Among these is John 0. Lyons who recently stated that the purpose of seventeenthcentury autobiographies is not self-revelation, and that historical memoir and more personal meditation were never combined.3 Other critics of Grace Abounding have granted work a pivotal role in history of autobiographical act. William

Art · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Irish and British Studies · Literature: history, themes, analysis

• Graceful Reading

  Diane Parkin-Speer•Sixteenth Century Journal•2004

  Add to list