John Bunyan is a man you and I weren’t every supposed to hear about. In fact, the people who imprisoned him for the better part of 17 years declared that his name should forever perish.
Ironically, that statement is engraved in stone- and we have no idea of the name of the man who made the statement!
Furthermore, Bunyan wrote a somewhat autobiographical parable during his imprisonment that became the second-best-selling book of all time, right behind the Bible.
Pilgrim’s Progress is a traveler’s tale, a genre of literature in the wake of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and other stories in which our heroes undertake a quest, a journey. The difference here is that Pilgrim (who eventually becomes “Christian”) travels from here to the celestial city.
Along the way he meets toils and snares, true friends and back-stabbing friends, as well as a litany of other situations we all face.
Scholars have tried to understand what made this book a best-seller. They have no real explanation other than the fact that many times God uses the weak (and imprisoned) to shame the strong (and in power) (1 Corinthians 1:27).
By the way, Bunyan was imprisoned for being a non-conformist, a fancy term which means he wasn’t licensed by the Church of England or the Anglican Church, both of which were accepted means of receiving credentials for clergy.
Today, he’s buried in a cemetery with other modern-day stalwarts of the faith, a place you’d likely love to be when the resurrection coccus.
Links for this show-
StandFast Community- https://georgegrant.net/community
Pilgrim’s Progress, the book with no pictures- https://amzn.to/2H69KGk
Pilgrim’s Progress with pictures- https://amzn.to/2U7asqs
Part 1 and Part 2- https://amzn.to/2IDNzcJ
Other listening options for the podcast include-
Itunes- https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-standfast-cast/id1448007323