John Bunyan’s extraordinary spiritual autobiography
In an age when religious radicalism was regarded as socially subversive, Bunyan’s Grace Abounding describes the spiritual regeneration of one who came from ‘that rank that is meanest and most despised’. God and Satan are the chief protagonists in Bunyan’s drama: they exist not as theological concepts but as terrifyingly immediate adversaries in the competition for Bunyan’s soul. ‘What care I,’ says Satan to Bunyan, ‘though I be seven years in chilling your heart, if I can do it at last?’ Bunyan finds his spiritual defences not so much in God as in the Bible, and Grace Abounding charts his passionate and imaginative involvement with this ultimate source of spiritual wisdom.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
John Bunyan was born in 1628. In 1644 he was caught up in the Civil War and drafted into the Parliamentary army. Four years later he entered a period of intense spiritual struggle (chronicled in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners),… More about John Bunyan
