The Oxford Handbook of John Bunyan

The Oxford Handbook of John Bunyan is the most extensive volume of original essays ever published on the seventeenth-century Nonconformist preacher and writer. It examines Bunyan’s life and works, religious and historical contexts, and the critical reception of his writings, in particular his allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Interdisciplinary and comprehensive, it ranges from literary theory to religious history, and from theology to post-colonial criticism. The Handbook is structured in four sections. The first, ‘Contexts’, deals with the historical Bunyan in relation to various aspects of his life, background, and work as a Nonconformist: from basic facts of biography to the nature of his church at Bedford, his theology, and the religious and political cultures of seventeenth-century Dissent. Part II, ‘Works’, considers Bunyan’s literary output in its entirety, including individual chapters on his major narratives and allegories: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), The Pilgrim’s Progress, Parts I and II (1678, 1684), The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680), and The Holy War (1682). Part III, ‘Directions in Criticism’, engages with Bunyan in literary critical terms, focusing on his employment of form and language and on theoretical approaches to his writings: from psychoanalytic to post-secular criticism. Part IV, ‘Journeys’, surveys the ways in which Bunyan’s works, especially The Pilgrim’s Progress, have travelled throughout the world. Bunyan’s place within key literary periods and historical developments is assessed, from the eighteenth-century novel to the writing of ‘empire’.