Forged from the Wilderness

The England of the seventeenth century, with its political and religious turmoil, was really not so different from the America of the twenty-first. Since the fall in the Garden of Eden, there has always been Gods way and mans. Hence the timelessness of John Bunyans allegorical masterpiece, The Pilgrims Progress, which first appeared in 1678. Forged from the Wilderness is the story behind the book, the story of John Bunyans life and of a little-known woman named Elizabeth, whom God much used to help shape him into the man he was called to be. By earthly standards, theirs was an unlikely union. Yet she became the dedicated stepmother of his four children, a courageous champion for her husbands freedom from prison, and a catalyst for the publishing of his works.Through meticulous research, I have endeavored to capture the real John Bunyan, the real Elizabeth, the real hardships they faced, and the real England of their time. How they lived in their world has much to tell us about how we ought to live in ours.