John Bunyan

British Minister and preacher John Bunyan (1628–1688), the son of a travelling tinker, was brought up in England’s agricultural Midlands. Bunyan attended a local grammar school but dropped out early to learn the family trade. His mind and imagination were shaped in the early years more by popular tales of adventure and the English Bible than by formal education.

Bunyan is the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, the allegorical work that best captures the essence of Puritan religious outlook. Though Bunyan’s family belonged to the Anglican church, he became familiar with the sermons, moral dialogues, books of judgements, and the popular literature of the English Puritans and went on to convert to Puritanism. Bunyan’s other works include doctrinal writings, verse of religious exhortation, Grace Abounding (1666), a spiritual autobiography, and The Holy War (1682), an allegory with a complex epic structure.