ABSTRACT
In June 2012, a conference entitled "The Biblical Literary" was held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Although the words imagination and imaginary are in common currency, it is now necessary to clarify what is meant in this work by imagination. Typology has long been perceived as both an approach to Scripture and a methodology. As an approach, it is based on the conviction that the holy texts have a divinely inspired underlying unity. Bunyan was sensitive to criticism of authors such as Parker and Sherlock, noting, as Greaves points out, that the Bible provides ample precedent for tropes, allegories and types. After the Restoration of the monarchy and the re-establishment of the Church of England, John Bunyan was imprisoned in Bedford Gaol for some twelve years for refusing to promise to refrain from preaching. Conventional scholarly wisdom has long held that Bunyan was exposed to few texts other than Scripture.
