A „RIGHTEOUS WAR”: COMPARING MILTON’S EXTERNAL REVOLUTION AND BUNYAN’S INTERNAL STRUGGLE
A „RIGHTEOUS WAR”: COMPARING MILTON’S EXTERNAL REVOLUTION AND BUNYAN’S INTERNAL STRUGGLE

Summary/Abstract: This study compares the concept of a “righteous war” by examining the perspectives of John Milton and John Bunyan. Even though there has been a lot of research conducted on these two authors, none has compared their respective theories of war. While literary circles focus on the techniques and themes of their writings, the field of theology examines their thoughts from a faith-based perspective. This paper aims to comprehensively evaluate their theories of war in order to shed light on these two fields of study. It considers their respective living circumstances, emphasizing the creative energy and destructive irony of the literature. It was found that although Bunyan’s “internalization” of war for saving one’s soul differs from Milton’s “external” war for the salvation of society, both of them supported war when it was for a worthy reason. The possibility of Bunyan’s holy war being transformed into an ideology concerned with external war as well, regardless of Bunyan’s intention, was considered.

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