John Bunyan by Kevin Belmonte is a volume of Thomas Nelson’s “Christian Encounters” biography series. See the product information for this volume at http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1595553045&title=Christian_Encounters_Series:_John_Bunyan.
I came to the volume both having read Bunyan and having read his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, as well as the biography, John Bunyan, by Frank Mott Harrison.
Belmonte’s biography is compact, engaging, and very readable. Belmonte has put Bunyan within his time, rather than dropping him out of the sky as a figure disassociated with the real world around him. After placing his family in history and describing what can be known of his family, including a valuable description of what a “tinker” actually is, Belmonte spends the bulk of his work describing how Bunyan came to write Pilgrim’s Progress. The volume ends with a timeline.
Belmonte achieves his end well is writing a biography that focuses on the Bunyan history and the writing of his best-known work and for that, the book is a welcome addition to Bunyan studies. Yet, I found it lacking in the sense that the series is called “Christian Encounters,” and Bunyan’s Christianity is almost incidental to the book. Yes, Belmonte shows Bunyan’s Christianity as necessary for the Bunyan’s writings, but I was almost left saying, “so what?”
I can understand the desire to put out a series of short biographies and, as I said, this one does what it intends well, but it would help the reader to know more of the specifics of Bunyan’s Christianity. The dearth of citations from Bunyan’s voluminous works is deafening. Perhaps a future edition will flesh out this.
Nevertheless, as it stands, I would recommend this book, with Bunyan’s autobiography and/or a biography that treats and quotes his understanding of Christianity at some length.
[This review appears at Amazon.com and on my blog.]
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