Read any new old books lately?

This is an interesting read. I am going to have to print it out and study it to see if I agree with the author’s statement that because of our post-revivalist prejudices we view our salvation as a supernatural point in time rather than as a pilgrimage, that our salvation is truly more akin to the wandering of the Isrealites in the desert.

From John R. Muether’s “Looking for a Good New Book?“

Reading Bunyan reminds us that stressing a moment of conversion is a revivalist prejudice. Writing in pre-revivalist times, Bunyan describes nothing in Christian’s dangerous journey as a conversion, not even the release of his burden at the cross. Bunyan is uninterested in any such moment. It serves no purpose in his description of the Christian life.

Bunyan likely would have agreed with Calvin and other Reformers, who defined conversion as the entire Christian life, not just one moment. If, then, we reduce conversion to a particular experience, this likely diminishes our appreciation of the pilgrim character of the Christian life. Evangelicals struggle with Pilgrim’s Progress because they misunderstand Bunyan’s account of salvation.

From the July 2004 New Horizons online magazine