Binding: Hardcover
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Evangelical Press
ISBN#: 9780852346808
Monergism Books has just added a recent biography by Faith Cook—Fearless Pilgrim: The Life and Times of John Bunyan. From the publisher's description:
Faith Cook avoids the temptation of merely regarding Bunyan as one of the great figures of English literature. That he certainly is, but he is so much more – a physician of souls, much-loved pastor and powerful preacher of the gospel of grace. The authoress skilfully relates her subject to the political history of his times, in which nonconformists won a greater measure of freedom to worship according to their understanding of the Bible during the Cromwellian period, only to be restricted again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.I've enjoyed reading several biographies by Faith Cook and am looking forward to this one. Her writing style is warm, informative, and very encouraging.
Bunyan emerges from this book as a writer of plain yet remarkably imaginative prose, steeped in an amazing knowledge of the English Bible. That knowledge is not just textual: it is deeply experimental, the fruit of much meditation, as The Pilgrim’s Progress particularly shows.
Monergism Books | $22.79
Hi Tim
ReplyDeleteMan, another book I'll have to get...
As I study Bunyan, more and more I think he was some kind of genius. For a man of very little formal education, he produced a tremendous body of brilliant work. Actually, even if he had the formal education, his work is tremendous!
I am taking our church through Pilgrim's Progress this year. I have taken the study guides at Mount Calvary's site and added to them. I tell our people the clear questions come from Dr. Lovegrove, the obscure ones come from me. If you would like, I could put the link here to make our study guides available.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Don,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your offer! We would be glad for you to put a link here to your study guides. That would be a good service to our readers. I was blessed to have a part in teaching that series at Mount Calvary, and I benefited from it greatly.
What the Lord did through the relatively uneducated Bunyan is amazing. His imagery in Pilgrim's Progress and The Holy War has now become part of the way I think about the Christian life.
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteOk, here is a link to the whole series. I have both study guides and study guides with answers.
I really appreciated the Mount Calvary study guides, I copied them pretty much verbatim (citing Dr. Lovegrove in the footer for each one) and then added my own extra questions or quotations. I can't leave well enough alone, I have to tinker!
Anyway, our people have really been enjoying the study. Some of Bunyan's descriptions are very picturesque and a great aid to personal understanding. The section where Hopeful relates his testimony as he and Christian make their way through the Enchanted Grounds was particularly moving to me.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Thanks for the link, Don. I noticed you've finished Part 1 and have gotten into Christiana's story in Part 2. I hope you can spend more time in this section than we did. We presented a four-lesson survey of Part 2, and when we were finished, many of our people said they wished we could have taken more time with it. Well, I guess better to leave them wanting more rather than the other way around, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, you always want to leave them wanting more!
ReplyDeleteWe are working through Part 2 one chapter at a time. (By chapter, I mean the divisions in the Whitaker edition - I got em' real cheeep at the Press Bookstore last summer) We should be finished early in March.
It seems that it is hard to find much written up about Part 2. I contacted Maureen Bradley who has written an excellent study guide for part one. She told me her publisher wanted her to do a Part 2, but she has a couple of other projects in line first.
Interesting to me is that it appears Bunyan's Calvinism is much more apparent in Part 2 than in Part 1. It might amaze some that I even dare to use Bunyan, being decidedly non-Calvinistic. But the fact is that Bunyan is a choice servant of the Lord from whom any believer can profit. So we are quite enjoying him.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3