Bunyan,John

Bunyan, John, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, ed. W. R. Owens, Harmondsworth Penguin, 1987. 

I. Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 - Criticism and interpretation. 2. Christianity and literature - England - History - 17th century. 3. Christian literature, English - History and criticism. 4. Dissenters, Religious, in literature. 5. Puritan movements in literature. 6. Bunyan, John, 1628-1688-Appreciation. 7. Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 - Influence. 

To quote the advice of John Bunyan, written more than 300 years ago. 

Tindall, William York. "John Bunyan, mechanick preacher." PhD thesis, Columbia Univ, 1934. 

Tindall, William York. John Bunyan, mechanick preacher. New York Columbia Univ P, 1934. 

The mystical branch of alchemy produced countless allegories of spiritual development. Predating John Bunyan by fifty years or so, is the remarkable The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart by JA Comenius. In this, the narrator is led through an endless city where he witnesses all forms of human folly. In the end, he is saved only by his faith in God. In addition to Comenius, there are countless shorter works, such as Thomas Vaughan s House of Light andTommasso de Campanella s City of the Sun. 

Descriptions of the disease appear in the writings of almost every culture. John Bunyan, writing in the 17th century, claimed (in The Life and Death of Mr. Badman) that ... 

The Pilgrim s Progress — from this world to that which is to come by John Bunyan, 1684... 

The blessed work of helping the world forward, happily does not wait to be done by perfect men and I should imagine that neither Luther nor John Bunyan, for example, would have satisfied the modern demand for an ideal hero, who believes nothing but what is true, feels nothing but what is exalted, and does nothing but what is graceful. 

The Whole Works of John Bunyan, ed. George Offor, 3 vols. (1852-3 London, Glasgow and Edinburgh Blackie, 1862), 1 3, Opinions recommendatory of this edition . 

William York Tindall, John Bunyan Mechanick Preacher (New York Columbia University Press, 1934), p. vii. 

See my Grace Overwhelming John Bunyan, The Pilgrim s Progress and the Extremes of the Baptist Mind (Bern Peter Lang, 2006). 

On the darker side of Bunyan s oeuvre, see Beth Lynch, John Bunyan and the Language of Conviction (Cambridge D. S. Brewer, 2004). 

Dialogue with the Radicals , Harvard Theological Review, 77 (1984), 73-94 Ted L. Underwood, It pleased me much to contend John Bunyan as Controversialist , Church History, 57 (1988), 456-69. 

Michael Mullett, John Bunyan in Context (Keele University Press, 1996) Vera J. Camden (ed.). Trauma and Transformation The Political Progress of John Bunyan (Stanford University Press, 2.008). 

Bunyan s literary career began with two anti-Quaker tracts. Some Gospel-truths Opened (1656) and its Vindication (1657). He is introduced and described on his first title page as that unworthy servant of Christ John Bunny an, of Bedford, By the grace of God, Preacher of the Gospel of his dear Son MW, These, and Bunyan s third piece, the sermon A Few... 

As argued in W.R. Owens, Reading the Bibliographical Codes Bunyan s Publication in Folio , in Keeble (ed.), John Bunyan, pp. 59-77 see further MW, xil xvii-xxiii. 

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