Who Is John Bunyan?

The most popular novel in the history of the world was written in prison by a man whose humble beginnings and arduous life reflect the One he lived for—Jesus Christ (The Portable Bunyan). John Bunyan, who never received more than a second grade education, impacted Christian thinking and English literature so profoundly that he was able to transcend the cultural and religious framework from which he wrote and influence a universal audience (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners).

The Drunken Tinsmith

John Bunyan was born in England in 1628, entering into the broader historical context with “the final phases of the Reformation movement still fresh in the minds of the people” and the Puritan pilgrimage to America dawning in the near future. John’s father was a tinker (a tin smith), providing a meager life for his family and training his son to follow in his footsteps. At the age of sixteen Bunyan lost his mother and two sisters, after which his father married for the third time.

It was his radical encounter with God’s grace that led to his regeneration and conversion.

Bunyan quickly left home to join the British army, where he stayed for three years, and then returned home to set up a business as a tinker. During his late teenage years Bunyan wanted nothing to do with religion and even had a reputation as a drunkard. In Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, Bunyan’s spiritual autobiography, he describes his depravity at this stage of his life: “It was my delight to be taken captive by the devil at his will (2 Tim 2:26), being filled with all unrighteousness, which did also so strongly work, and put forth itself, both in my heart and life, that I had but few equals for cursing, swearing, lying and blaspheming in the holy Name of God.”

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Bunyan describes the beginning of his conversion, or his “first longings for Godliness,” in his marriage to a godly woman in 1649. Mary came from a poor family, and her only dowry was the two books that her father had left to her: The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven and The Practice of Piety.

Although Bunyan describes a gradual external change towards religion, it was his radical encounter with God’s grace that led to his regeneration and conversion. Instrumental in his conversion was Mr. Gifford, the pastor of a Baptist church in Bedford, where Bunyan began attending and eventually preaching. Bunyan recounts the hope and joy he found in the gospel in Grace Abounding:

One day as I was passing in the field…with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest all was still not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul: Your righteousness is in heaven. And I thought as well that I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. There, I say, is my righteousness, so that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he lacks my righteousness, for that was right before Him. I also saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday and today and forever.

When Gifford died, Bunyan was selected as the pastor of this church in his native town. He became a bold and powerful preacher. Great crowds attended his meetings and multitudes of people were turned away each Sunday. It is significant to note that while Bunyan is remembered mostly for his novels, he was first and foremost a preacher of the Word of God.

Jailed for Jesus

It was during this time that Bunyan began to write books, the majority of which were theological in nature and found wide acceptance and distribution. The first of his books, Some Gospel Truths Opened, was a fierce attack on the Quakers for relying on their own “inner light” rather than the inspired words of the Bible. As his popularity and notoriety grew, Bunyan increasingly became a target for enemies of the English Non-conformists. In 1658 Bunyan was arrested for the first time in Eaton Socon and was indicted for preaching without a license. It was during these long days and months in prison that Bunyan wrote his most famous works: Grace Abounding, his spiritual autobiography; The Holy War, which describes the war of God’s church with Satan; and his most famous work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, the journey of a man named Christian journeying from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.

It is significant to note that while Bunyan is remembered mostly for his novels, he was first and foremost a preacher of the Word of God.

After twelve years in prison Bunyan was released and immediately began pastoring a congregation in Bedfordshire, which grew upwards to 4,000 members. Five years later Bunyan would be imprisoned again for preaching. Yet whether he was in jail or out of jail, Bunyan staunchly proclaimed the truth of God through preaching and writing. The English officials, at one point, told Bunyan that they would let him go free if he would simply remain quiet. Bunyan replied, saying, “If you would let me out today, I should preach tomorrow.”

Bunyan died in 1688 from a fever, and his statement before death reveals his passion for his Savior and his love for his church, “I long for nothing so much as to be dissolved and be with Christ. I am content to depart when He shall call me. I have long borne a crucified heart, and by grace I shall enter into rest. Stay me not, for I am bidden into the presence of the King! Weep not, for though I pass away the Lord abides with you and never faileth!”

Timeline of Bunyan’s Life

1628 (Nov) Bunyan born in Elstow, England.
1644 Bunyan’s mother and sister both die.
1644 Drafted into the Parlimentary army
1647 Bunyan returns from the army to set up business as a tinker.
1649 Marries first wife
1650 Bunyan’s blind daughter Mary’s birth
1651 Bunyan comes under ministry of John Gifford
1653 Bunyan baptized
1656 First preaches in public
1656 Publishes Some Gospel Truths Opened
1658 First wife Mary dies and is left with four children
1659 Marries Elizabeth
1660 Imprisoned until 1672 for unlicensed preaching
1666 Grace Abounding published
1672 Called as pastor of Bedford church (Jan. 21)
1672 Released from prison
1672 Licensed as Congregational preacher (May 9)
1675 Warrant issued for Bunyan’s arrest
1677 Imprisoned for six months for not attending parish church
1678 Pilgrim’s Progress, Part 1, published
1682 Holy War published
1684 Pilgrim’s Progress, Part 2, published
1688 Bunyan dies
1692 Elizabeth dies

Timeline of Bunyan’s Historical Context

1546 Martin Luther dies
1564 John Calvin dies
1611 King James Bible completed
1615 Richard Baxter born
1616 John Owen born
1616 William Shakespeare dies
1617 Calvin’s completed works published in Geneva
1618 Synod of Dort
1620 Mayflower leaves Plymouth, England
1623 Blaise Pascal & Francis Turretin born
1630 Puritan migration to New World begins
1633 Galileo forced to renounce heretical ideas
1636 Harvard founded by Puritans
1637 Descartes’ Discourse on Method
1642 Sir Isaac Newton born (1642–1727)
1644 William Penn born (1644–1718)
1646 Westminster Confession
1648 George Fox founds Society of Friends
1667 Milton’s Paradise Lost published
1678 Pilgrim’s Progress first edition
1685 Bach and Handel born
1688 Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elentic Theology published
1730 The Great Awakening

Works by John Bunyan for Further Reading

The complete set of The Works of John Bunyan, George Offor edition, is available for free viewing and PDF download at http://www.johnbunyan.org/.

A complete bibliography of Bunyan’s 59 publications can be found in Richard L. Greaves, John Bunyan (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969) 169-71.
A Few Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul, 1658
A Discourse Upon the Pharisee and the Publican, 1685
A Holy Life
Christ a Complete Saviour (The Intercession of Christ And Who Are Privileged in It), 1692
Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, 1678
Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners, 1666
Light for Them that Sit in Darkness
Praying with the Spirit and with Understanding too, 1663
Of Antichrist and His Ruin, 1692
Reprobation Asserted, 1674
Saved by Grace, 1675
Seasonal Counsel or Suffering Saints in the Furnace – Advice to Persecuted
Christians in Their Trials & Tribulations, 1684
Some Gospel Truths Opened, 1656
The Acceptable Sacrifice
The Desire of the Righteous Granted
The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded, 1659
The Doom and Downfall of the Fruitless Professor (Or The Barren Fig Tree), 1682
The End of the World, The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment, 1665
The Fear of God – What it is, and what is it is not, 1679
The Greatness of the Soul and Unspeakableness of its Loss Thereof, 1683
The Heavenly Footman, 1698
The Holy City or the New Jerusalem, 1665
The Holy War – The Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Man-soul (The Holy War Made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the World), 1682
The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, 1680
The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come, 1678
The Strait Gate, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven, 1676
The Saint’s Knowledge of Christ’s Love, or The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, 1692
The Water of Life or The Richness and Glory of the Gospel, 1688
The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, 1688

Bibliography

Bacon, Ernest W. John Bunyan: Pilgrim and Dreamer. Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House, 1983.
Batson, E. Beatrice. John Bunyan: Allegory and Imagination. London: Croom Helm,
1984
Brown, John. John Bunyan: His Life, Times and Work. Archon Books, 1969.
Ellis, J.J. John Bunyan: The Immortal Dreamer. London: Pickering & Inglis LTD.,
Greaves, Richard L. John Bunyan. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969.
Harrison, Frank Mott. John Bunyan: A Story of His Life. London: Banner of Truth
Trust, 1964.
Hill, Christopher . A Tinker and a Poor Man: John Bunyon and His Church, 1628-1688.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989
Hofmeyr, Isabel. The Portable Bunyan: A Transnational History of the Pilgrim’s
Progress. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Kennedy, Austen. John Bunyan the Man. Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1928.

Justin Holcomb