Description
Deemed the second most read of John Bunyan’s three-centuries old allegories (quite behind The Pilgrim’s Progress in tally), The Life and Death of Mr. Badman is a poignant and fire-charged description of an indifferent, downwardly-spiraling life, during which the title character bore no concern for the injury he inflicted upon others.
Basically, Badman is the story of an insensitive, conniving villain, a sociopath, who weasels his way through life and business. In a long-winded, but riveting, discussion, we find ourselves eavesdropping upon a conversation between Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive, basically of Puritan leanings, retelling the developmental life journey of Mr. Badman – a story beginning in his childhood, stretching into his teenage years, on through his apprenticeship, marriage, and business, and into his older years.
Footnotes plumbing the depths of 17th-century English history and culture provide descriptive insight on what Christopher Hill dubs The World Turned Upside Down. Bunyan, who lived through most of that century, pulled no punches as the story trudges through its raw and heart-wrenching descriptions of the depths to which some seedy lives had fallen in this post-Renaissance / pre-Enlightenment world.
In Mr. Badman: A Reckoning, each chapter begins with a Scripture focal point and ends with a prayer starter to help provide assistance leading the readers into their own prayerful responses. Also, this retelling of Bunyan’s work concludes with two appendices, some sample discussion starters and a bibliography to encourage deeper inquiry.
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