Books in the Religions and Discourse series

Awarded the 2007 National Research Prize SAES/AEFA. This study is a reappraisal of John Bunyan in the light of the dissenting religious culture of the late-seventeenth century. Charges of schism and fanaticism were repeatedly levelled against Bunyan, both from within the dissenting community and without, but far from being chastened by these accusations, Bunyan responded with a religious discourse marked by a rhetoric of excess. The focus of this book is therefore upon Bunyan¿s overwhelming spiritual experiences, especially the representation of torment, in his literary and polemical works. The believers¿ suffering was an obsessive concern of dissenting ministers, even to the point where their writings are often remembered today for little else. Hitherto, most scholars have termed all the mental states that they invoke ¿despair¿, but this simplifies the experiences at issue. A wealth of contemporary material helps to restore the nuances of seventeenth-century physical and spiritual conditions, from enthusiasm to melancholy and madness; from fear to desertion and sloth. These chapters explore fresh ways in which this subtle typology of torment and its extreme manifestations form the core of the literary expression of Restoration dissent, challenging Bunyan to represent spiritual equilibrium as the ultimate quest of the earthly pilgrimage.

Introduces the concept ordinary African readers' hermeneutics in a study of the reception of the Bible in postcolonial Africa. This book looks beyond the scholarly and official church-based material to the way in which the Bible, and discourses on or from the Bible, are utilized within a range of diverse contexts.

Dancing to the Post-Modern Tune

John Donne's family were committed Catholics. His two uncles were Jesuits. One of them, Jasper Heywood, was leader of Jesuit mission in England, while Donne's mother was a recusant who was forced to leave country. This book describes influence of Spiritual Exercises on late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Catholicism and Protestantism.

Challenging the Stereotype

Literature and theology have long been conversation partners. The great themes of human existence form the subject matter of their shared discussion. However, comedic literature has often been overlooked as a serious means to fostering such theological engagement. This book seeks to rectify this imbalance.

In this work, the author discusses the various beliefs and ideologies of the RastafarI movement related to Ethiopia. The author also challenges the misogynistic attitude of the RastafarI movement by rehabilitating the position of women through the figure of the Queen of Sheba.

Engaging Ludwig Wittgenstein as 'philosophical hand-maid' (as opposed to 'metaphysical gate-keeper'), this book subjects to critique both traditional realist and post-modern constructivist perspectives as it examines how the nature and role of metaphor-making at the creative edge of language casts light on the God-language-world relationship.