John Bunyan (1628-1688) was born in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England, and spent most of his life in and around Bedford. He is remembered as a preacher, prisoner of conscience, and author whose works joined plain speech with extraordinary spiritual imagination.

Bunyan came from a humble family and learned his father’s trade as a tinker. He received some schooling, though not enough to remove him from ordinary working life. In 1647 he married his first wife, whose godly upbringing and few religious books became an important early influence on him. They had four children, including Mary, who was born blind. After his first wife’s death, Bunyan married Elizabeth in 1659, and they had two more children.

His conversion unfolded through deep conviction of sin, the counsel of believers in Bedford, and the ministry of John Gifford, pastor of the Bedford congregation. Bunyan was baptized in 1653 and soon became known for preaching with searching power to ordinary hearers.

After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, unauthorized Nonconformist preaching was forbidden. Bunyan refused to stop preaching and spent about twelve years in Bedford Gaol. His imprisonment separated him from his family and from his blind daughter Mary, a grief he felt keenly, but it also became the setting in which some of his most enduring work was formed.

Bunyan is best known for The Pilgrim’s Progress, first published in 1678, one of the most widely read works of Christian literature in English. He also wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, The Holy War, and many sermons and treatises marked by directness, pastoral urgency, and imaginative force.

In 1687, when King James II sought Nonconformist support, Bunyan declined a position of local influence because the king would not remove the laws burdening dissenters. His decision reflected the same conscience that had carried him through prison.

Bunyan died in 1688 after riding through heavy rain while helping reconcile a son to his father. He was buried at Bunhill Fields in London, among other Nonconformist witnesses whose lives had been shaped by costly faithfulness.