The Pilgrim’s Progress – Classic Edition with Extra Features (John Bunyan)

The Pilgrim’s Progress

Classic Edition with extra Features

John Bunyan certainly authored one of the most influential books in the English language. But The Pilgrim’s Progress is so much more than that: Bunyan’s plan for his readers is for them to travel through this book as an adventure through the Christian life – retold in words and pictures.

The story of Christian and his companions has been a favorite for generations. John Bunyan’s imaginative text brings out the same, practical, necessary lessons that everyone needs to know – both today and yesterday. Additional features and study sections have been included to help today’s generation of children to understand the book. These will help you to get behind some of the characters and places that Bunyan describes.

You will also learn about Bunyan himself through a life summary, and get some ideas on how to use this book. Only a few archaic words have been changed to modern equivalents and there is a dictionary and footnotes to provide additional help. This means that Christian and Faithful talk like the medieval travelers they are, and not like modern day tourists, but you can also understand what they are saying!

• Read to me: 6–11
• Read Myself: 12–14

About John Bunyan

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was born at Elstow, England, about a mile from Bedford. He became one of the most influential authors of the seventeenth century.

Few writers in history have left such a wealth of Christ-centered writings.

Bunyan’s moving conversion is recorded in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. While walking the streets of Bedford, Bunyan heard “three or four poor women” sitting at a door, “talking about the new birth, the work of God in their hearts, and the way by which they were convinced of their miserable state by nature. They told how God had visited their souls with His love in Christ Jesus, and with what words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations of the devil.” From these godly women Bunyan learned to despise sin and to hunger for the Savior. Later, while passing into the fields, he recounts, “This sentence fell upon my soul, ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven’…for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Then “his chains fell off,” and he went home rejoicing.

His Calling to Preach

In 1655, Bunyan was called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Bunyan was arrested November 12, 1660, for preaching without the approval of the Anglican Church. He was charged with “teaching men to worship God contrary to the law” and was in jail more than twelve years.

His most well-known work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, was written while in the Bedford jail. During Bunyan’s lifetime there were 100,000 copies circulated in the British isles, besides several editions in North America. It has been continuously in print since its first printing. Bunyan’s remarkable imagery was firmly rooted in the biblical doctrines of man’s fall, grace, imputation, justification, and the atonement.