John Bunyan

Life

Bunyan was born in Elstow, near Bedford, England, into a family of tinkers (craftsmen who mended pots and kettles). He received little formal education and took up his father's trade. When the English Civil War broke out in his teens, he served in the Parliamentary army. After his marriage he began reading the devotional books his wife had brought with her, and after a long inner struggle with guilt and doubt, he experienced conversion. In the 1650s he joined an independent congregation in Bedford that stood outside the established Church of England, and he became active as a lay preacher.

After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, meetings outside the established church and unlicensed preaching were prohibited. Bunyan was arrested after he refused to promise that he would stop preaching, and he was held in the Bedford jail for about twelve years, until 1672. Released that year under the king's Declaration of Indulgence, he became pastor of the Bedford congregation. He was briefly imprisoned again in the mid-1670s. He died of illness in London in 1688 and was buried in Bunhill Fields, a Nonconformist burial ground in London.

Ministry and Works

• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666): A spiritual autobiography recounting the course of his conversion.
• The Pilgrim's Progress (Part 1, 1678; Part 2, 1684): An allegory depicting the journey of its hero, Christian, who leaves the City of Destruction and passes through places such as the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair on his way to the Celestial City (the heavenly city). At the end of his journey, Christian must cross a river that has no bridge in order to enter the Celestial City; the river symbolizes the believer's death. Part 2 recounts the pilgrimage of Christian's wife, Christiana, and their children.
• He is known to have written nearly sixty books and tracts, including The Holy War (1682) and The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680).

Theologically, Bunyan held to a Calvinist soteriology and emphasized the grace of God. He accepted believer's baptism but maintained that believers who differed on the mode of baptism should nonetheless be received into fellowship and admitted to Communion. This position drew him into controversy with stricter Baptists. Today Baptists regard him as one of the representative figures of their tradition, and other Nonconformist traditions, such as the Congregationalists, also claim him as part of their heritage.

Influence on the Korean Church

In 1895 the Canadian missionary James Scarth Gale, with the assistance of Yi Chang-jik, translated The Pilgrim's Progress into Korean under the title Tyeollo-yeokdyeong (텬로력뎡). It is regarded as one of the earliest works of Western literature to be translated into Korean. This edition included illustrations by the painter Kim Jun-geun, which are famous for depicting the characters in traditional Korean gat hats and hanbok clothing. Numerous translations, children's adaptations, comics, and stage productions followed, and in the Korean church the book has been read as a classic devotional book in Sunday school and young adult ministry. Korean hymns and sermons use crossing the Jordan River as a metaphor for death and entry into heaven, and the river-crossing scene in The Pilgrim's Progress carries the same symbolism.

Assessment

The Pilgrim's Progress is regarded as one of the most widely read books in the English-speaking world after the Bible, and it has been translated into a great many languages. Charles Spurgeon is said to have read it more than a hundred times. Commentators also frequently note that a craftsman without formal education produced a classic while in prison, and that he willingly endured imprisonment for the sake of religious liberty.

The work has also drawn criticism. Some argue that the plot of Part 1, in which the hero leaves his family behind and sets out alone, can be read as presenting an overly individualistic faith. Others hold that Part 2, which recounts the family's pilgrimage, addresses this concern to some degree. Some literary scholars judge the characters to be schematic because moral instruction and doctrinal teaching take precedence over characterization. Bunyan also engaged in harsh controversy with the Quakers of his day, who countered that his criticisms distorted their positions.