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Four years after John Bunyan released his instantly popular journey allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, he published The Holy War--a battle allegory and companion volume. His first book explores salvation of the individual Christian; the second portrays the battle for sanctification. While Christian struggles with questions about assurance of salvation, the collective Mansoul labors with the challenges of being led by and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Pilgrim's Progress focuses on the individual's struggle against sin; The Holy War portrays the Church in a corporate struggle against systemic evil. Bunyan wrote that The Holy War originates in "the same heart, and head, fingers and pen" as The Pilgrim's Progress. Both books present separate dimensions of Bunyan's spiritual journey. Taken together, the journey allegory and the battle allegory capture the full range and depth of the biblical message that consumed Bunyan's imagination. He credits his own salvation to these two things: The grace of God and tenacious, continual, holy warfare. The Holy War is testimony to a spiritual battle he fought, and won. This edition provides annotations that clarify Bunyan's first edition language and message for readers in a post-Puritan world.

The Holy War, Etc. [With “Grace Abounding,” “The Barren Fig-Tree,” “The Life and Death of Mr. Badman.” “Solomon's Temple Spiritualized,” “The Water of Life,” “The Heavenly Footman,” “Sighs from Hell,” “Christ a Complete Saviour,” “Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ,” “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved; Or, Good News for the Vilest of Men”: “The Visions of John Bunyan: Being His Last Remains,” “The Desire of the Righteous Granted; Or, a Discourse of the Righteous Man's Desires,” and Short Extracts from Other Writings by Bunyan.]

John Bunyan

Published: 1806

Total Pages: 90


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Robert McKelvey argues that John Bunyan wrote The Holy War as a warfare allegory symbolizing the salvation history of Scripture from a Calvinistic-covenantal perspective. In this cosmic drama of redemption, the "Histories That Mansoul, and her Wars Anatomize" include the individual-soteric-microcosmic level or ordo salutis unfolding analogous to the redemptive-historical-macrocosmic level or historia salutis. The eternal covenant of redemption provides the foundation for this history of salvation, which progresses from creation to the anticipation of consummation. This scheme finds its roots in the Puritan philosophy of "universal history" which sees all historical events serving God's redemptive purposes. The individual, through union with Christ founded on election, participates in the drama by inclusion within the trans-historical covenant of grace. As a depiction of cosmic war, The Holy War sets forth the enmity between the church and Antichrist, which is representative of the greater battle between Christ and the devil from Genesis to Revelation. As a pastoral guide to persecuted saints, Bunyan retrospectively rehearses the history of redemption to grant comfort. In addition, he prospectively reveals the consummation of redemption to encourage perseverance and instil eschatological hope. This thesis is substantiated contextually through Bunyan's life and writings, historiographically by surveying the history of Holy War interpretation, pre-textually by examining the introduction to the allegory, and textually by analyzing the allegory itself.