Book Review: Pilgrim’s Progress

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (Penguin Classics)

At least 30 years have passed since the first time I read John Bunyan’s spiritual classic. After three decades, two things remain unchanged. It’s still not light reading. And it’s still worth the effort.

Many modern readers may find the quirky punctuation, random italicization and 17th century language off-putting. Even so, this classic allegory of Christian’s journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City—and the subsequent pilgrimage of his wife, Christiana, and their children under the guidance of Great-Heart—touches on universal themes of struggle and re-demption. Fans of modern cotton-candy Christian heroic fantasy should chew on the red-meat original model.

This 2008 Penguin Classics edition includes a helpful introduction and insightful endnotes by editor Roger Pooley, offering valuable information about Bunyan’s life and ministry, the theology behind his book and the cultural context for its composition.

Ken Camp, managing editor

Baptist Standard

Unleashing Courageous Faith: The Hidden Power of a Man’s Soul by Paul Coughlin (Bethany House)

Promise Keepers are credited as giving a first call for men to rise up and be real men as God intended. Paul Coughlin in Unleashing Courageous Faith calls for a “second turning” for men.

Coughlin bases this call on the Greek word thumos which loosely translates as a “fight drive.”

The author calls men to live a courageous faith in every facet of their life.

Coughlin feels men have been conditioned to suppress this God-given trait to fit into society’s idea of what a man should be.

The book is illustrated in ways that capture the male reader.

Any man will be challenged to reach inside and draw on his thumos to live cour-ageously as God designed him to be.

I highly recommend reading this book and applying its truths to be all God intended us to be.

Leo Smith

Executive Director

Texas Baptist Men

Dallas