Introduction

Biography

John was the son of Tho­mas Bun­yan, Jr., and Mar­ga­ret Bent­ley, and hus­band of Eliz­abeth Bun­yan.

His book Grace Ab­ound­ing, re­counts an in­ci­dent from his ser­vice in the Eng­lish Ci­vil War, as evi­dence of the grace of God:

When I was a Soul­dier, I, with oth­ers, were drawn out to go to such a place to be­siege it; But when I was just rea­dy to go, one of the com­pany de­sired to go in my room, to which, when I had con­sented, he took my place; and com­ing to the siege, as he stood Sen­tin­el, he was shot in­to the head with a Mus­ket bullet and died.

Works

• Grace Ab­ound­ing to the Chief of Sin­ners, 1666 (a theo­lo­gic­al au­to­bio­gra­phy, writ­ten in jail)
• The Pil­grim’s Pro­gress, from This World to That Which Is to Come (Lon­don: Na­than­iel Pon­der, 1678). By 1938, 1,300 edi­tions had been print­ed.
• The Life and Death of Mr. Bad­man: An Anal­ysis of a Wick­ed Man’s Life, as a Warn­ing for Oth­ers, Pre­sented to the World in a Fa­mil­iar Dia­logue Be­tween Mr. Wise­man and Mr. At­tent­ive, 1680