One of the greatest Christian classics, Pilgrim's Progress, emerged not from the halls of a university, but from a prison cell. The man who wrote it was not a highly educated man, but a poorly educated religious teacher and preacher.
John Bunyan was born in Elston, Bedfordshire, in 1628. His home was a small hut, and his father worked as a poor pot filler. Every day his father, Thomas Bunyan, pushed his cart along the road, stopping from house to house to patch pots.
John briefly attended school, but like many other children of his era, he continued his father's work as a potter. During the English civil war, he joined the army (1644-1647), probably on the Puritan side. In 1649 John Bunyan married, his wife coming from a pious family. Through her he began to seek God. However, he often slipped into his old habits. Although his life made a good impression on his neighbors, he described himself as "a man of excessive pretensions."
In 1681, Bunyan began attending independent meetings in Bedford, and was moved by the biblical preaching of a priest. He began to meditate on the Scriptures. After years of searching and wrestling, which he wrote about in his spiritual biography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, John Bunyan was finally truly converted and found peace with God. He was now firmly convinced that salvation could only be obtained through the grace and gift of God. In 1653 John joined St. John's Church in Bedford and he began preaching. Many people marveled at the pot solder's preaching ability.
John Owen, one of the leading scholars and theologians of the day, when asked by King Charles II why he would listen to the preaching of an uneducated pot-solderer, replied, "If I had the ability of the pot-solderer to preach, pardon your Majesty, I would gladly give up all the knowledge I possess."
In 1660, royal rule was restored with the return of Charles II to the throne. King Charles II initially promised religious freedom. However, due to the Anglican Church's rapid growth and becoming the largest church, it became the only church recognized by the state. Religious tolerance was restricted. Members of the Bedford Independent Fellowship could no longer meet at St. John's Church, which they shared with the Anglican Church.
That November, Bunyan was preaching at Lower Samsell, a farm near the village of Harlington, thirteen miles from Bedford, when a friend gave warning that a warrant for his arrest had been issued. Bunyan decided not to flee, he was arrested and brought before the local magistrate Sir Francis Wingate, at Harlington House. Bunyan was arrested under the Religion Act of 1592, which made it an offense to attend a religious meeting other than an Anglican church, attended by more than five people outside the family. The offense was punishable by 3 months' imprisonment followed by expulsion or execution if the person then failed to promise not to commit the offense again. The law is actually rarely used. Bunyan's arrest may have been due to concerns that religious gatherings outside those organized by the state church were being used as a cover for people plotting against the king (although this was not the case with Bunyan's gathering).
The Act of Uniformity, which required preachers to be ordained by Anglican bishops and the revised Common Prayer Book to be used in church services, was still two years away, and the Act of Convention, which prohibited the holding of religious meetings of five or more people outside the Church of England (Anglican) was not passed until 1664.
Bunyan's trial took place in January 1661, before a group of judges under John Kelynge, who would later co-author the Act of Uniformity. Bunyan, who had been held in prison since his arrest, was charged with "maliciously failing to come to the (English) church to hear the service" and with having held "several unlawful meetings and communions, which have caused a disturbance of the peace to the good people of this kingdom". John Bunyan was initially only sentenced to three months' imprisonment with the option of parole if at the end of that time he agreed to worship in the state Church and stop preaching.
However, because Bunyan refused to stop preaching, his prison sentence was eventually extended to 12 years. Bunyan spent 12 years in prison at Bedford County Gaol, located on the corner of High Street and Silver Street. However, there were times when he was allowed out of prison, depending on the prison warden and the mood of the authorities at the time, and he was able to attend the Bedford Independent Fellowship and even preach.
It was in this first holding cell that Bunyan penned his first book, “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Bunyan recounts his personal biography and spiritual journey, a unique conversion process that may not be relevant and the same for others.
He languished in prison until 1672, when Charles issued the Declaration of Indulgence, which made concessions for non-Anglicans. After his release, the Independents' fellowship house called him to be their pastor. He received a license to preach and became known to many as Bishop Bunyan, perhaps because he was considered the genius who united the Independents in his region. However, this tolerance and religious freedom did not last long.
In 1675 Bunyan went back to prison. In prison John Bunyan began writing his most famous work, Pilgrim's Progress. Pilgrim's Progress is Bunyan's masterpiece, which was only published in 1678 and sold for 18 pennies. Since its first publication, it has been translated into more than 100 languages and reprinted hundreds of times. The experience of the traveler in this book is the experience of the Christian throughout his life. The life of a Christian is like that of a wandering traveler, with times of joy and comfort and times of trial and temptation. The book attracted a lot of interest in its time, perhaps because many readers felt that the journey of the traveler (the main character) was similar to their own. Bunyan described the most intimate state of the Christian soul. His deep awareness of God's grace for himself, gives him the ability to speak to many, even across generations, about their own spiritual state.
Here's an excerpt from Pilgrim's Progress:
When I was walking in the forest of this world's learning, I came to a place where there was a cave. I lay down to sleep and in my sleep I dreamed. I dreamed, and saw a man dressed in rags standing somewhere, turned away from his home with a book in his hand and a heavy burden on his shoulders. I saw him open the book and read. As he read, he wept and trembled: ”Unable to contain himself he cried out in despair. He said, "What should I do?
So [the Christian] ran and ran, until he came to an uphill place, and there stood a cross, and a little below was a grave. Thus I saw in my dream, just as the Christian came to the height of the cross, his burden slipped from his shoulders and rolled down to the mouth of the grave, then fell and was seen no more…
In another passage:
Therefore (the citizens of Pasar Raya Semu) brought Si Setia out to enforce their law on him. First they whipped him, then they beat him, and stabbed him with knives, then they stoned him with stones and pierced him with swords; finally they burned him to ashes at the stake. That is how the Faithful ended his life. Then I saw behind the sea of people a chariot and a pair of horses waiting for Si Setia. And no sooner had his opponents finished him off than Setia was lifted up in it, straight across the clouds to the sound of trumpets, the nearest way to heaven's door.
That's how Pilgrim's Progress not only inspired the readers of the time, but also inspired millions of others of later generations. Today's beautiful phrases first emerged from the book, such as ”Vanity Fair”, ”The Slough of Despond”, ”House of Beautiful”, ”Muckraking”, and ”Hanging is too good for him”. Incredibly, Bunyan wrote the mesmerizing Pilgrim's Progress only armed with personal experience and the Bible.
In 1688, on his way to London to the home of a friend, grocer John Strudwick of Snow Hill, Bunyan took a detour to Reading, Berkshire. He went through Reading because he wanted to help solve a family problem of a member of his fellowship. On the way from Reading to London, he was caught in a storm and fell ill with fever. He died at Strudwick's house on the morning of August 31, 1688 and was buried in the Strudwick family's cemetery in Bunhill Fields, London. At this time the persecution of dissenters (dissenters) gradually ceased. Although Bunyan served in the Independent Church, he is remembered by the Church of England by organizing a Little Festival every August 30. Some other Anglican Communion churches, such as the Anglican Church of Australia, honor him on the day of his death (August 31).
The bicentennial of Bunyan's birth, celebrated in 1928, drew praise from his former enemy, the Church of England. Although popular interest in Bunyan waned in the second half of the twentieth century, academic interest in the author increased and Oxford University Press published new editions of his works, beginning in 1976. Many writers from the modern era were influenced by Bunyan including C. S. Lewis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, George Bernard Shaw, William Thackeray, Charlotte Bront ë, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and also Enid Blyton.
Library:
Tony Lane, History of Christian Thought. Tony Lane. BPK Gunung Mulia.
100 Important Events in Christian History. A. Keneth Curtis, J. Stephen Lang, Randy Petersen. BPK Gunung Mulia.
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bunyan)
