John Bunyan

John Bunyan was born in 1628 in Elstow, near Bedford, the son of a tinker (a mender of pots and pans). He received only a basic village education and followed his father's trade. He served in the Parliamentary army during the Civil War, probably from 1644 to 1647.

Bunyan's conversion came gradually during the late 1640s and early 1650s, and he described the process in painful detail in his spiritual autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. He was tormented for years by doubts, blasphemous thoughts, and the fear that he had committed the unpardonable sin. His eventual deliverance came through reading Luther's commentary on Galatians and through the counsel of John Gifford, the pastor of an Independent congregation in Bedford.

Bunyan joined Gifford's church and soon began preaching. Despite his lack of education, his preaching was vivid, forceful, and drew from the plain language of working people. He was licensed to preach by the congregation around 1657.

When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Bunyan refused to stop preaching without a license and was imprisoned in Bedford jail. He spent twelve years in prison (1660-1672), during which he wrote extensively. He was released under the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 and became pastor of the Bedford Meeting. He was imprisoned again briefly in 1676-1677.

The Pilgrim's Progress was published in 1678 and became an immediate bestseller. It has been translated into over 200 languages and has never been out of print. Bunyan continued to write and preach until his death in 1688 from a fever caught after riding through the rain to London to reconcile a father and son.

Bunyan published over sixty works during his lifetime. Besides The Pilgrim's Progress, his most important include Grace Abounding, The Holy War, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, and The Strait Gate.