Vera J. Camden

Prisoner of Conscience

Theology

“Galen Johnson vigorously argues against current trends in Bunyan studies which herald Bunyan as a figure of incipient modernism. Johnson grounds his study of Bunyan in Reformation orthodoxies and especially in the scriptural basis of all of Bunyan's writings. While not discounting the profound anxieties and tensions which propel Bunyan's conversion crisis and set him at odds with the Restoration state, Johnson insists on Bunyan's fundamental adherence to biblical authority over individual subjectivity in matters personal, political and ecclesial. Johnson's point is simple but profound. The submission of the individual believer to the word of God and to the community of believers who sustain the witness to that Word prompted all other forces in Bunyan's life.”