The Trinitarian Thinking of John Bunyan in The Pilgrim’s Progress

In John Bunyan’s day trinitarian debate was raging from Oxford to Bedfordshire. In spite of Bunyan’s rough upbringing, he is often considered a literary genius in Britain’s early-modern period, which tends to distract scholars from the fact that he was also a brilliant theologian-apologist. While Bunyan may have been deprived of the traditional tools of scholasticism, he is nevertheless more than capable as a trinitarian apologist. The early formation of Bunyan’s trinitarian thoughts providentially occurred prior to conversion and are evident in his earlier theological writings which prepared him to engage in the trinitarian conversation of the seventeenth century. The two trinitarian instances in the Pilgrim’s Progress which are analyzed in this article not only show Bunyan’s ability to bridge theology for a popular audience but also demonstrate a skillful ability to address the Ranters and Quakers who wandered through Bedfordshire terrorizing the flock with strange doctrine.