Sann, A. Bunyan in Deutschland. Giessen: Schmitz, 1951.
Williamson — Pilgrim’s Progress Re-considered
Williamson, Hugh Ross. “The Pilgrim’s Progress Re-considered.” Fortnightly Review 163 (1948): 347–52.
Willcocks — Bunyan Calling
Willcocks, Mary Patricia. Bunyan Calling: A Voice from the Seventeenth Century. London: Allen and Unwin, 1943.
Wehrsig — John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress
Wehrsig, George. “John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress als Erziehungsbuch.” Thesis, Breslau University, 1934.
Tibbutt — Bunyan Guide
Tibbutt, H. G. A Bunyan Guide. 2nd ed. Elstow Moot Hall Leaflets, 1. Elstow: Elstow Moot Hall, 1956.
Review: Times Literary Supplement, 29 June 1956, p. 258.
Stranahan — Bunyan’s Special Talent
Stranahan, Brainerd P. “Bunyan’s Special Talent: Biblical Texts as ‘Events’ in Grace Abounding and The Pilgrim’s Progress.” Studies in Philology 11 (1982): 329–43.
Stranahan — Bunyan and the Epistle to the Hebrews
Stranahan, Brainerd P. “Bunyan and the Epistle to the Hebrews: His Sources for the Idea of Pilgrimage in The Pilgrim’s Progress.” Studies in Philology 79 (1982): 179–296.
Sharrock — Spiritual Autobiography
Sharrock, Roger. “Spiritual Autobiography in The Pilgrim’s Progress.” Review of English Studies 24 (1948): 102–20.
Sharrock — Personal Vision and Puritan Tradition
Sharrock, Roger. “Personal Vision and Puritan Tradition in Bunyan.” Hibbert Journal 56 (1957): 47–60.
Platt — Pilgrim’s Progress
Platt, Warren C. “The Pilgrim’s Progress: Notable Editions in the Research Libraries.” Biblion 6, no. 1 (Fall, 1997): 28–41.
Sharrock — John Bunyan
Sharrock, Roger. John Bunyan. London: Hutchinson, 1954.
Review: Rosemary Freeman, Review of English Studies n.s. 7 (1956): 201–02.
Thiel — Bunyans Stellung innerhalb
Thiel, Gerhard. Bunyans Stellung innerhalb der religiösen Strömungen seiner Zeit. Breslau: Priebatsch, 1931.
O’Donnell — Shaw, Bunyan, and Puritanism
O’Donnell, Norbert F. “Shaw, Bunyan, and Puritanism.” Publications of the Modern Language Association 72 (1957): 520–33.
Lindsay — John Bunyan, Maker of Myths
Lindsay, Jack. John Bunyan, Maker of Myths. London: Methuen, 1937.
Reviews: Times Literary Supplement, 23 October 1937, p. 784; F. A. Lea, Adelphi 14 (1937): 81–85; R. Church, London Mercury 37 (1937): 86–87; B. Dobrée, Spectator , 5 November 1937, pp. 812–14.
Lamont — Bunyan’s Holy War
Lamont, Daniel. “Bunyan’s Holy War: A Study in Christian Experience.” Theology Today 3 (1947): 459–72.
Knox — John Bunyan in Relation to His Times
Knox, Edmund Arbuthnott. John Bunyan in Relation to His Times. London: Longmans, Green, 1928.
Kaufmann — Pilgrim’s Progress
Kaufmann, U. Milo. The Pilgrim’s Progress and Traditions in Puritan Meditation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.
Kaufman — Bunyan Signatures
Kaufman, Paul. “Bunyan Signatures in a Copy of the Bible.” Book Collector 8 (1959): 427–28.
Johnson — Biblical Source
Johnson, Clifford. “A Biblical Source for Bunyan’s ‘Wide Field Full of Dark Mountains’.” Notes and Queries 21 (1974): 413–14.
Hutton — John Bunyan
Hutton, William Holden. John Bunyan. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1928.
Harrison — Pilgrim’s Progress
Harrison, Frank Mott. “The Pilgrim’s Progress” (letter). Times Literary Supplement, 23 January 1937, p. 60.
Hodgson — Bunyan’s ‘Book for Boys and Girls’
Hodgson, J. E. “Bunyan’s ‘Book for Boys and Girls’.” Times Literary Supplement, 4 November 1926, p. 770.
Hill — Milton, Bunyan and the Literature of Defeat
Hill, Christopher. “Milton, Bunyan and the Literature of Defeat.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 24, no. 1 (Winter, 1991): 1–12.
Haskin — Light Within
Haskin, Dayton William. “The Light Within: Studies in Baxter, Bunyan, and Milton.”
Dissertation Abstracts International 40 (1979): 270A.
Haskin — Burden of Interpretation
Haskin, Dayton. “The Burden of Interpretation in The Pilgrim’s Progress.” Studies in Philology 79, no. 3 (Summer, 1982): 256–78.
Harrison — Some Illustrators
Harrison, Frank Mott. “Some Illustrators of The Pilgrim’s Progress [Part 1].” Library 17 (1936): 241–63.
Harding — John Bunyan
Harding, Richard Winboult. John Bunyan: His Life and Times. London: 1928.
Guppy — John Bunyan
Guppy, Henry. “John Bunyan, 1628: November 1928: A Brief Sketch of His Life, Times and Writings.” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 12 (1928): 122–23.
Greg — ‘Issues’ of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’
Greg, W. W. “The ‘Issues’ of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’.” Times Literary Supplement, 19 August 1926, p. 549.
Golder — John Bunyan’s Hypocrisy
Golder, Harold. “John Bunyan’s Hypocrisy.” North American Review 223 (1926–27): 323–32.
Golder — Bunyan and Spenser
Golder, Harold. “Bunyan and Spenser.” Publications of the Modern Language Association 45 (1930): 216–37.
Forrest — Milton and the Divine Art of Weaponry
Forrest, James F. “Milton and the Divine Art of Weaponry: ‘That Two-Handed Engine’ and Bunyan’s ‘Nameless Terrible Instrument’ at Mouthgate.” Milton Studies 16 (1982): 131–40.
Ford — Lesser Known Works of John Bunyan
Ford, Ralph E. The Lesser Known Works of John Bunyan: Being the Annual Lecture of the Evangelical Library. London: The Evangelical Library, 1957.
Draper — Bunyan’s Mr Ignorance
Draper, John W. “Bunyan’s Mr Ignorance.” Modern Language Review 22 (1927): 15–21.
Bunyan — Pilgrim’s Progress
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress and The Life and Death of Mr. Badman. Ed. G. B. Harrison. London: Nonesuch Press, 1928.
Brown — John Bunyan
Brown, John. John Bunyan (1628-1688): His Life, Times and Work. Rev. ed. London: Hulbert Publishing Co., 1928.
Revised by Frank Mott Harrison.
Blondel — Bunyan et la Bible
Blondel, Jacques. “Bunyan et la Bible dans The Pilgrim’s Progress.” Les Langues Modernes 67 (1973): 57–66.
Price — Bunyan and Matthew Arnold
Price, Fanny. “Bunyan and Matthew Arnold.” Notes and Queries (26 September 1942): 195.
Golder — Bunyan’s Giant Despair
Golder, Harold. “Bunyan’s Giant Despair.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 30 (1931): 361–78.
Bunyan — Pilgrim’s Progress
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress. New York: Columbia University Press for the Facsimile Text Society, 1934.
Bunyan — Pilgrim’s Progress
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress. London: Noel Douglas, 1928.
Facsimile of first edition.
Bunyan — Poems
Bunyan, John. John Bunyan: The Poems. Ed. Graham Midgley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Beal — Grace Abounding
Beal, Rebecca S. “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: John Bunyan’s Pauline Epistle.” Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 21 (1981): 147–60.
McGrath — Early Modern Asceticism
McGrath, Patrick J. Early Modern Asceticism: Literature, Religion, and Austerity in the English Renaissance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020.
“In discussions of the works of Donne, Milton, Marvell, and Bunyan, Early Modern Asceticism shows how conflicting approaches to asceticism animate depictions of sexuality, subjectivity, and embodiment in early modern literature and religion. The book challenges the perception that the Renaissance marks a decisive shift in attitudes towards the body, sex, and the self. In early modernity, self-respect was a Satanic impulse that had to be annihilated—the body was not celebrated, but beaten into subjection—and, feeling circumscribed by sexual desire, ascetics found relief in pain, solitude, and deformity. On the basis of this austerity, Early Modern Asceticism questions the ease with which scholarship often elides the early and the modern.”
“The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living”
. . . the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
Here, the intersection of the timeless moment
Is England and nowhere. Never and always.
. . . history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter’s afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England.
— T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding
Years ago, when I was teaching at the University of Maryland, I created two rather ambitious websites—one a large bibliography of the religious aspects and backgrounds of English literature, the other a collection of English devotional texts—but eventually, like almost everything else in our transitory digital world, they disappeared from the Web after I retired. I thought it might be useful to restore at least some of this material to public view. I am now trying to select the most significant material from the bibliography and then will add more recent writings.
The boundaries of the bibliography are admittedly rather imprecise: when I began, I simply wanted to compile a large list of the most important books, articles, theses, etc. that treated the connections between English literary history and religious life. Once I started gathering citations, I found that in reality I was focusing mainly (though not exclusively) on writers of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and that most of them, with a few notable exceptions such as Milton and Bunyan, were Anglican. I am certainly willing to extend those borderlines in the future, but you should keep in mind both the strengths and limitations of this bibliography. I am of course also aware that the study of English literature has changed dramatically in various ways during recent decades; nevertheless, I hope this website will continue to have some value to those who wish to know more about the complex historical relationships between religious traditions and various literary works created in Britain. (I will just add in passing that despite the word English in the title of this blog, I have occasionally strayed over the Welsh, Scottish, and Irish borders.)
One small technical point: for some of the literary figures I have created tags, but for other writers and historical personalities you will have to use the search box.
Finally, I should also mention that I would be happy to receive suggestions about new material that I might consider adding to this blog. Please write to me at the address below.
— William S. Peterson (wsp@umd.edu)
The photo of Little Gidding (above) is by Alan Watts Photography.
Brown — John Bunyan
Brown, T. J. “John Bunyan, 1628–1688.” Book Collector 9 (1960): 53–55.
Harrison — Bibliography of the Works of John Bunyan
Harrison, Frank Mott. A Bibliography of the Works of John Bunyan. London: Bibliographical Society, 1932.
Harrison — John Bunyan
Harrison, G. B. John Bunyan: A Study in Personality. London: Dent, 1928.
Moot Hall, Elstow
The Moot Hall, Elstow: A Collection Illustrating English Seventeenth–Century Life and Traditions Associated with the Life of John Bunyan, 1628–88. Bedford: Bedfordshire County Council, 1952.
Jones — Christian and His World
Jones, C. J. A. “Christian and His World: The Presentation of Some Areas of Religious Experience in the Writings of John Bunyan.” D.Phil thesis, Oxford University, 1976.
English Literature & Religion: A Bibliography 