John Bunyan

John Bunyan was the author of The Pilgrim's Progress. Born at Harrowden in the parish of Elstow, he was christened on November 30, 1628. He had very little schooling and followed his father in the tinker's trade. From 1644 to 1647, he was in the parliamentary army. In 1649, he married and lived in Elstow until 1655, when his wife died, and he moved to Bedford. He married again in 1659. In 1655 he became a deacon at the Baptist Church in Bedford and began preaching with marked success from the start. In 1658 he was indicted for preaching without a license. He kept on, however, and did not suffer imprisonment until November of 1660, when he was taken to the county jail in Silver Street, Bedford, and there confined, with the exception of a few weeks in 1666, until January, 1672. In that month he became pastor of the Bedford church. In March, 1675, he was again imprisoned for preaching. This time his imprisonment only lasted six months. In August, 1688, on his way to London, he caught a severe cold, and died at the house of a friend on Snow Hill on August 31, 1688. Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress in two parts, of which the first appeared at London in 1678, and was, at all events, begun during his imprisonment in 1676; the second in 1684. The earliest edition in which the two parts were combined in one volume was in 1728. A third part falsely attributed to Bunyan appeared in 1693. The Pilgrim's Progress is the most successful allegory ever written. Bunyan also wrote, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680), an imaginary biography, and the allegory The Holy War (1682). The book which lays bare Bunyan's inner life and reveals his preparation for his appointed work is Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666). His motive in writing this book was plainly to exalt the grace of God and to comfort those passing through experiences somewhat like his own. Bunyan was a popular preacher as well as a very voluminous author, though most of his works consist of expanded sermons. In theology, he was a Puritan, but not a partisan; nor was there anything gloomy about him. He was tall and had reddish hair, a prominent nose, a rather large mouth, and sparkling eyes. He was no scholar, except of the English Bible, but that he knew thoroughly. Another book which greatly influenced him was Martin Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians.