John Bunyan by Kevin Belmonte

Thomas Nelson Publishers has created a new series of biographies of folks who have been influential people within the christian family. I had the opportunity to review one of them, so I chose the one book that a)I knew the author and b)I didn’t know much about the author. Does that make any sense?

So… I chose John Bunyan. A while back I was able to read The Pilgrim’s Progress. I knew nothing about it before I dove into page 1 but was immediately sucked into the story of the pilgrim.

As I walk’d through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain
place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I
slept, I dreamed a Dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a Man cloathed with
Rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a Book in
his hand, and a great Burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the
Book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being
able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying What shall
I do?

Wow. Who writes like that? Who was John Bunyan? These were questions I had as I began reading the biography.

Like most biographies, I found the first part of the book to be rather boring. However, this is probably just a flaw in my appreciation of biographies. We must look at the past to see how the person was shaped. However, for me the meat of the story began in chapter 12 that is titled “A Path That Skirted Madness.” This refers to Bunyan’s conversion experience that was summarized by Andrew Lang. I underlined another sentence that I read a few times to ensure that I read it correctly, “Bunyan was a dissenter whose faith was the result of a desperate and prolonged struggle.” Isn’t that like all of us. We all have this struggle that shapes our faith. For those folks who paint a “pretty” path to Christ and whom have all the answers, I often wonder if they have the answer at all. To me… Faith is a struggle. That is what Faith Is.

One thing that I had NO IDEA about was that Bunyan was in prison for as long as he was. He was imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. The persecution that he endured is crazy to imagine in this day and time. Much of it coming from the “religious” people of his day.

The book does a remarkable job of showing the inspiration of several of the characters that the pilgrim encounters during his journey. This was interesting reading to me. It now makes me want to go back and re-read the book now that I have this perspective of what Bunyan was going through at the time and folks that he dealt with.

A friend recently told me that I needed to branch out and read some older books. I agree. I consume a lot of current literature. Nothing is written now that is new is very true. I have to remind myself of this.

While I was able to review this book for free because of the book review bloggers program that Thomas Nelson does, I would easily recommend it. I will probably be looking into purchasing some of the other biographies that are in this series over time. If they are like this book, I know that I will like them. It was easy reading. It kept my attention captive. I was able to retain a lot of the information. I was able to skim back over the book with relative ease as I reminded myself of the main points of each chapter. Very Well Done.

Book Review Bloggers

In the interest of full disclosure let me end by telling you that I am part of the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger’s program. I volunteered to read this book and publish a review on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”