Background

Bunyan, born in Elstow near Bedford, England, was baptized on November 30, 1628. His date of birth is not known. His father, the brazier-tinker "Thomas Bonnion," derived from an old Bedfordshire family which had declined in fortune and status.

Education

John was probably educated at his father's house, possibly with other poor country boys, but in his writings he refers to his days in school. So he must also have spent some time at a school, possibly the one in Houghton Conquest. Some think that Bunyan may have attended Bedford Grammar School but some records show that only pupils living in the Borough of Bedford were eligible for a place there.

Career

From 1644 to 1647 Bunyan served with the parliamentary army during the Puritan Revolution, but he saw little or no fighting. With John Gifford's guidance he made a spiritual pilgrimage and in 1653 was baptized in the Ouse River. Two years later, induced by his Baptist coreligionists, he started "the mighty work of preaching the Gospel." Soon his pen became as active as his tongue, and in 1658-1659 he published Sighs from Hell and other tracts.

The restoration of monarchy and Anglicanism in 1660 meant that Bunyan could no longer preach freely as he had under the Puritan Commonwealth. In January 1661 he was jailed for "pertinaciously abstaining" from Anglican services and for holding "unlawful meetings." Because he was unwilling to promise silence, his 3-month sentence stretched to 12 years with a few respites. He worked while in prison to support his second wife and children. He also preached to his fellow sufferers and wrote a variety of religious works, including Grace Abounding published in 1666 - one of the world's most poignant spiritual autobiographies. During this period he also wrote most of Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress, but he hesitated to release it because of its fictional structure.

After the Declaration of Indulgence (1672), Bunyan was freed and licensed as a preacher. He built a Nonconformist congregation of 3,000 or 4,000 souls in Bedfordshire; he ministered assiduously to his flock and helped to found about 30 other congregations. But in 1673 the edict of toleration was repealed.

When Bunyan was imprisoned for about 6 months in 1675, he again worked on his masterpiece, and Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress was published in 1678. It won immediate popularity, and before his death there were 13 editions, with some additions. Since then it has been continuously in print and has been translated into well over a hundred languages. Bunyan's own experience and the language of the Bible were the sources of The Pilgrim's Progress. Unlike Grace Abounding, this work reveals his spiritual development through allegory. Like The Pilgrim's Progress, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680) made a significant advance toward the English novel.

Bunyan produced 14 more books before he died at the age of 60 on August 31, 1688. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, where he lies near other great Nonconformists-William Blake, George Fox, and Daniel Defoe.

Achievements

• Bunyan is best remembered for The Pilgrim's Progress, a book which gained immediate popularity, became one of the most published books in the English language. He wrote above 60 other pious works. The sincere evangelical urgency of his religious thought and the vivid clarity of his prose have won wide admiration.
  
  In 1874, a bronze statue of John Bunyan, sculpted by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, was erected in Bedford. There is another statue of him in Kingsway, London, and there are memorial windows in Westminster Abbey, Southwark Cathedral and various churches, including Elstow Abbey (the parish church of Elstow) and the Bunyan Meeting Free Church in Bedford.
  
  Bunyan is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the United States Episcopal Church on 29 August.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Heavenly Footman

    ("The Heavenly Footman; Or, A Description of the Man That ...)

  • The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan

    (Volume 1: Some Gospel-Truths Opened, A Vindication of Som...)

  • A Relation of My Imprisonment 1765
  • Pilgrim's Progress 1678
  • Life and Death of Mr. Badman 1680
  • The Pilgrim's Progress - Part II 1682
  • The Holy War 1682
  • Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Religion

Under the combined influence of Arthur Dent's The Plain Man's Pathway, Bunyan became an attentive churchgoer and delighted in Anglican ceremonial and bell ringing. But he soon recognized that he was desperately bound by sin and that only Christ could provide redemption. He turned for guidance to John Gifford; once a roistering Cavalier, Gifford had been rescued from debauchery by the Gospel and was pastor of the Congregational Church in Bedford. "Mr. Gifford's doctrine," wrote Bunyan, "was much for my stability."

Like Joan of Arc and St. Theresa, Bunyan heard voices, and like William Blake, he had visions. He saw Jesus looking "through the tiles on the roof" and felt Satan pluck his clothes to stop him from praying.

Personality

Bunyan was no fornicator, drunkard, or thief.

Connections

Within two years of leaving the army, in 1648, Bunyan married. The name of his wife and the exact date of his marriage are not known, but he did recall that his wife, a pious young woman, brought with her into the marriage two books that she had inherited from her father.

The couple's first daughter, Mary, was born in 1650, and it soon became apparent that she was blind. They would have three more children, Elizabeth, Thomas and John. In 1658 Bunyan's wife died, leaving him with four small children. A year later he married an eighteen-year-old woman named Elizabeth.

Father:

Thomas Bunyan

Mother:

Margaret Bunyan

Spouse:

Elizabeth Bunyan

Daughter:

Mary Bunyan

Son:

John Bunyan

Son:

Thomas Bunyan

Daughter:

Elizabeth Bunyan

References

• John Bunyan: Author of The Pilgrim's Progress (Heroes of the Faith)
• In the Steps of John Bunyan: An Excursion Into Puritan England
• Puritan's Progress: A Study of John Bunyan
• The Cambridge Companion to Bunyan