John Bunyan Books: A Guide to All 14 and Where to Start
John Bunyan (1628–1688) was a tinker from Bedford, England, who became a preacher, spent twelve years in jail for it, and wrote The Pilgrim's Progress. Most people know him for that one book. But he wrote dozens more: his own life story, a second allegory, sermons that plead with the worst of sinners, and plain, searching treatises on prayer, grace and the Christian race. TheWay Library has fourteen books under his name, all free to read. For his life story, see who was John Bunyan.
This guide sorts them so you can find the right one.
Where to start
Start with The Pilgrim's Progress. It's his masterpiece, and everything else he wrote makes more sense once you've walked the road with Christian. Our Pilgrim's Progress summary and guide to its characters and places will help on a first reading.
Then read Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, the story of his own conversion. It's the true story behind the dream.
After that, choose by what you want:
- Another story: The Holy War.
- A short sermon on God's mercy: The Jerusalem Sinner Saved.
- Help with prayer and justification: The Pharisee and the Publican.
- A push to keep going: The Heavenly Footman.
- For children: one of the two retellings below.
- A taste of everything: The Riches of Bunyan.
For his best lines from all of these, see our John Bunyan quotes.
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come
Bunyan's allegory of the Christian life, told as a dream. Christian, weighed down by a burden on his back, flees the City of Destruction for the Celestial City. He loses his burden at the cross, fights Apollyon, stands trial at Vanity Fair and escapes Giant Despair before he crosses the river. This edition gives the first part, Christian's own pilgrimage, with Bunyan's Scripture references in the margin.
For the key lines in order, see Pilgrim's Progress quotes. Read The Pilgrim's Progress.
Two retellings for children
- The Pilgrim's Progress, Every Child Can Read: a 1909 edition of both parts that keeps Bunyan's story and most of his wording but swaps hard words for easy ones and leaves out the long arguments. A child of ten can follow it.
- The Pilgrim's Progress in Words of One Syllable: both parts retold in one-syllable words, credited to Lucy Aikin. It's made for early readers of any age.
Our guide to Pilgrim's Progress for kids compares the two and suggests how to read them aloud.
The Holy War
The Holy War, Made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus
Bunyan's second allegory, first published in 1682. The human soul is the town of Mansoul, built by King Shaddai with five gates: Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate and Feel-gate. Diabolus talks his way in at Ear-gate and takes the town. Shaddai's son Emmanuel besieges it, wins it back and pardons it. Then Mansoul grows careless, falls again, and has to be restored and defended. It's the whole history of salvation and the long fight of the Christian life in one story. It's longer and slower than The Pilgrim's Progress, and many readers love it more.
Nor must thou think always to live by sense: thou must live upon my word.
The Holy War, A Relation of the Holy War
His own story
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
Bunyan wrote this from Bedford jail for the people who'd come to faith under his preaching. In numbered paragraphs he tells of his careless youth, the voice that stopped him in the middle of a game, and years of terror over his sins, until verses like "My grace is sufficient for thee" and "Thy righteousness is in heaven" brought him to rest in Christ. This edition also has his own account of his arrest and trial in 1660 and a short continuation of his life to his death. It's one of the most honest books ever written about doubt and grace. Read Grace Abounding.
Sermons and shorter books
These are short enough to read in an evening or two.
- The Jerusalem Sinner Saved; or, Good News for the Vilest of Men: a long sermon on Luke 24:47. Christ told His apostles to preach repentance and forgiveness "beginning at Jerusalem," the very city that killed Him. Bunyan draws out why Christ wants mercy offered first to the biggest sinners, and pleads with the worst of men to come. It was one of his last books, and it's full of tenderness.
- The Pharisee and the Publican: a close study of Christ's parable of two men praying in the temple (Luke 18:10–14). Bunyan weighs the Pharisee's boast against the Publican's cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner," to show that no one is justified by his own righteousness, only by Christ's, received by faith.
- The Heavenly Footman: a short, urgent book on 1 Corinthians 9:24, "So run, that ye may obtain." Heaven must be run for, not just wished for. Bunyan gives directions for the race, motives to keep running, and warnings for those who've slowed down or turned back.
- Miscellaneous Pieces: four short late pieces: counsel on the Trinity, a meditation on the law and the Christian, the last sermon Bunyan preached, in London in July 1688, and his dying sayings, short sentences on sin, affliction, prayer and heaven.
- An Exhortation to Peace and Unity: a short treatise on Ephesians 4:3 about keeping peace among believers, with twelve directions for it. It's printed in most collected editions of Bunyan, though its editors note that his authorship has been questioned.
Know also, that now heaven's gates, the heart of Christ, with his arms, are wide open to receive thee.
The Heavenly Footman, chapter 3
An anthology
The Riches of Bunyan
Most readers never open Bunyan's many lesser-known works. In 1850 Jeremiah Chaplin gathered short passages from them into one book, arranged by subject like a body of doctrine: God, Scripture, man and sin, grace, Christ, conversion, faith, prayer, the church, death, heaven and hell. It's a good bedside book. Read a page, and you'll find a sentence to carry through the day.
Faith makes great burdens light; but unbelief maketh light ones intolerably heavy.
The Riches of Bunyan, Christian Graces
The Works of John Bunyan
George Offor's collected edition of Bunyan, in three large volumes, each work with Offor's notes. These are for readers who want everything. Use the table of contents to go straight to the piece you want.
- Volume 1: Offor's long memoir of Bunyan's life, then Grace Abounding, the account of his imprisonment, his dying sayings and Prison Meditations, and his books on the gospel: The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, The Greatness of the Soul, Christ a Complete Saviour, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, Saved by Grace, The Strait Gate, Praying in the Spirit, The Excellency of a Broken Heart and more.
- Volume 2: doctrinal and practical treatises, from The Saints' Knowledge of Christ's Love and Of Antichrist and His Ruin to The Resurrection of the Dead, The Pharisee and the Publican, writings on the Sabbath and baptism, Christian Behaviour (duties in the home) and a commentary on the first chapters of Genesis.
- Volume 3: his allegories and related books: both parts of The Pilgrim's Progress, The Holy War, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, The Heavenly Footman, The Barren Fig-Tree, The Holy City, The Water of Life and his verse on death, judgment, heaven and hell.
Volume 3 is the place to read Part Two of The Pilgrim's Progress, the pilgrimage of Christian's wife, Christiana, her boys and her friend Mercy, with Great-heart as their guide. It's the part with Mr. Valiant-for-truth and the shepherd boy's song:
He that is down needs fear no fall; He that is low, no pride; He that is humble, ever shall Have God to be his guide.
Works of John Bunyan, Volume 3, The Pilgrim's Progress, Second Part
A book about Bunyan's characters
Alexander Whyte, the Edinburgh preacher, gave a series of lectures on the people of The Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan Characters, Second Series covers figures from later in the story and from Part Two, among them Ignorance, Little-Faith, Hopeful, Mercy, Mr. Fearing, Great-heart and Valiant-for-truth. It's a fine companion if you want to slow down and see yourself in Bunyan's people.
Why read Bunyan today
Bunyan never went to college. He wrote with the Bible open, out of his own fears and his own rescue, in English as plain as a kitchen table. That's why a tinker's books have outlasted the scholars of his day. He knew how heavy a burden of sin is, and he knew the place where it falls off.
Begin with The Pilgrim's Progress, then read Grace Abounding. All his books are on the John Bunyan author page, and more of the Puritans are in our list of the best Puritan books.