I just stumbled across your substack - reading this reminds me a lot of the IBLP, and things a couple of the older Duggar girls (Jill and Jinger specifially) have said about it now that they're no longer part of it. Like you, they continue on with Christian faith, but have had to work to separate what is actually Biblical from what they were taught. It's a difficult process, but the devil has all sorts of ways of tricking us, and one of the greatest lies is making us think that we're completely alone.
I never personally met the Duggars but I knew people who had.
It was such a relief when I learned Bunyan had the similar struggles, to know I wasn't alone. Bunyan says he also wondered if he was alone in his struggles until he read Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians.
In The Evangelical Imagination, I talk about Bunyan’s intense imagination. It makes sense that that might be connected with other aspects of his mind. We are lucky that he wasn’t dismissed for that as we tend to do today.
In Bunyan's day, his non-conformism was the threat to the stability of the Establishment. In our day, among evangelicalism, Christian experience that doesn't conform to its cultural norms is a similar threat. A mentally ill Christian is outside those comfortable norms.
I just stumbled across your substack - reading this reminds me a lot of the IBLP, and things a couple of the older Duggar girls (Jill and Jinger specifially) have said about it now that they're no longer part of it. Like you, they continue on with Christian faith, but have had to work to separate what is actually Biblical from what they were taught. It's a difficult process, but the devil has all sorts of ways of tricking us, and one of the greatest lies is making us think that we're completely alone.
I never personally met the Duggars but I knew people who had.
It was such a relief when I learned Bunyan had the similar struggles, to know I wasn't alone. Bunyan says he also wondered if he was alone in his struggles until he read Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians.
I posted your newsletter in a comment on my post today. I had already written this when you shared this essay with me. Interesting intersection of a theme: https://karenswallowprior.substack.com/p/the-tragical-history-of-the-life-3b0/comment/56393251?r=90e4e&utm_medium=ios
I noticed the intersection!
In The Evangelical Imagination, I talk about Bunyan’s intense imagination. It makes sense that that might be connected with other aspects of his mind. We are lucky that he wasn’t dismissed for that as we tend to do today.
In Bunyan's day, his non-conformism was the threat to the stability of the Establishment. In our day, among evangelicalism, Christian experience that doesn't conform to its cultural norms is a similar threat. A mentally ill Christian is outside those comfortable norms.