Bunyan, John – Greatness of the Soul

John Bunyan Biography

(baptised November 30, 1628 – August 31, 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

Bunyan came from the village of Elstow, near Bedford. He had some schooling and at the age of sixteen joined the Parliamentary Army during the first stage of the English Civil War. After three years in the army he returned to Elstow and took up the trade of tinker, which he had learned from his father. He became interested in religion after his marriage, attending first the parish church and then joining the Bedford Meeting, a nonconformist group in Bedford, and becoming a preacher. After the restoration of the monarch, when the freedom of nonconformists was curtailed, Bunyan was arrested and spent the next twelve years in jail as he refused to give up preaching. During this time he wrote a spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and began work on his most famous book, The Pilgrim's Progress, which was not published until some years after his release.

Bunyan's later years, in spite of another shorter term of imprisonment, were spent in relative comfort as a popular author and preacher, and pastor of the Bedford Meeting. He died aged 59 after falling ill on a journey to London and is buried in Bunhill Fields. The Pilgrim's Progress became one of the most published books in the English language; 1,300 editions having been printed by 1938, 250 years after the author's death.

He 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. Some other churches of the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church of Australia, honour him on the day of his death (31 August).

Works of John Bunyan

Between 1656, when he published his first work, Some Gospel Truths Opened (a tract against the Ranters and Quakers—has—who at the time were somewhat indistinguishable), and his death in 1688, Bunyan published 42 titles. A further two works, including his Last Sermon, were published the following year by George Larkin. In 1692 Southwark comb-maker Charles Doe, who was a friend of Bunyan's later years, brought out, with the collaboration of Bunyan's widow, a collection of the author's works, including 12 previously unpublished titles, mostly sermons. Six years later Doe published The Heavenly Footman and finally in 1765 Relation of My Imprisonment was published, giving a total of 58 published titles.[36]

[expand title="Click here to see more"]

It is the allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, written during Bunyan's twelve-year imprisonment although not published until 1678 six years after his release, that made Bunyan's name as an author with its immediate success. It remains the book for which Bunyan is best remembered.[36] The images Bunyan uses in The Pilgrim's Progress are reflections of images from his own world; the strait gate is a version of the wicket gate at Elstow Abbey church,[37] the Slough of Despond is a reflection of Squitch Fen, a wet and mossy area near his cottage in Harrowden, the Delectable Mountains are an image of the Chiltern Hills surrounding Bedfordshire. Even his characters, like the Evangelist as influenced by John Gifford, are reflections of real people.

Further allegorical works were to follow: The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680), Pilgrim's Progress Part II and The Holy War (1682). Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, a spiritual autobiography, was published in 1666, when he was still in jail.

[/expand]

Taken from Wikipedia.org

The Works of John Bunyan

[expand title="Click here to see complete list"]

From volume one

Memoir of John Bunvan
01 Grace Abounding
01a Relation of Bunvan's Imprisonment
01b Continuation of Bunyan's Life
01c Bunvan's Dving Savings
02 Bunvan's Prison Meditations
03 The Jerusalem Sinner Saved
04 The Greatness of the Soul
05 The Work of Christ as an Advocate
06 Christ a Complete Savior
07 Come and Welcome to Christ
08 Justification bv Imputed Righteousness
09 Saved by Grace
10 The Strait Gate
11 Light for Those who Sit in Darkness
12 Treatise on the Fear of God
13 Doctrine of Law and Grace
14 Israel's Hope Encouraged
15 A Discourse Touching Praver
16 The Saint's Privilege and Profit
17 The Acceptable Sacrifice
18 Paul's Departure and Crown
19 The Desire of the Righteous Granted

Volume 2

20 Saint's Knowledge of Christ's Love
21 Of Antichrist and His Ruin
22 The Resurrection of the Dead
23 Some Gospel Truths Opened
24 Vindication of Gospel Truths Opened
25 Discourse on Pharisee and Publican
26 Defence of Doctrine of Justification
27 Reprobation Asserted
28 Questions About Seventh-Dav Sabbath
29 Of the Trinity and a Christian / Of the Law and a Christian
30 Scriptural Poems
31 Exposition of Genesis 1-10
32 A Holv Life the Beauty of Christianity
33 Christian Behavior
34 Caution to Watch Against Sin
35 Discourse of the Building of God's House
36 A Confession of mv Faith and Practice
37 Differences About Water Baptism
38 Peaceable Principles and True / On the Love of Christ
39 A Case of Conscience Resolved
40 John Bunvan's Catechism
41 Seasonable Counsel
42 An Exhortation to Peace and Unity
43 Bunvan's Last Sermon

Volume 3

44a Pilgrim's Progress - Introduction - Editor
44b Pilgrim's Progress - Synopsis - Editor
44c Pilgrim's Progress - Part I
44d Pilgrim's Progress - Part II
45 The HolvWar
46 A Map of the Order of Salvation
47 The Heavenly Footman
48 The Holv Citv. or The New Jeusalem
50 Discourse of the House of the Forest of Lebanon
51 The Water of Life
52 The Barren Fig Tree
53 The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
54 A Few Sighs From Hell
55 One Thing is Needful / Ebal and Gerizim
56 A Book for Bovs and Girls
57 The Struggler

[/expand]

taken from http://www.bunyanministries.org/?page_id=37

More theWord modules by John Bunyan