Owen’s and Bunyan’s lives remind us as Christians that we all “stand in need” of friendship. We stand in need of each other’s gifts, even when they are far different from our own, and we stand in need of each other’s help and encouragement, especially in the most trying times.

The Puritan theologian John Owen (1616–1683) is widely known for his teaching on sin and temptation. He had a knack for making keen observations not only about human sinfulness but about human frailty. “We are but dust,” Owen states, “and God knows we are but dust.” As a result, God in his providence makes general allowances “which are fitted and suited to our refreshment and relief in our pilgrimage.”

These divine accommodations include tangible provisions such as “houses, lands, [and] possessions,” as well as intangible blessings such as “the comfort of relations and friends.” While our greatest need is Christ, “we do greatly stand in need of these things” (Works of John Owen, 21:340). For Owen, one source of refreshment that he enjoyed on his pilgrimage was a friendship with the Baptist minister and allegorist John Bunyan.

Unlikely Friendship

Friendship is an important although overlooked ingredient for reformation. We sometimes think of figures like Luther and Calvin working as lone Reformers and forget about the supporting cast members who complemented and even extended their ministries. Next to Luther was Melanchthon. Surrounding Calvin were Farel, Viret, and Beza. These Reformers in the Wings, as the late David Steinmetz called them, underscore the vital role that friendships play in the settings where Christians live, work, and worship. In the aftermath of the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England in 1660, for example, the unlikely friendship between Owen and Bunyan resulted in the publication of one of the most important literary achievements of the modern world.

The ancient philosopher Cicero famously described friendship as “nothing other than agreement with goodwill and affection between two people about all things divine and human” (How to Be a Friend, 39). By all accounts, Owen and Bunyan shared much goodwill and affection toward each other, even if at first glance they had little in common. Owen was learned and well-connected. Bunyan was bright and gifted but uneducated, poor, and insignificant. With such starkly different backgrounds, their relationship has long captured the imagination of biographers, scholars, and general readers. Two well-known episodes illustrate their relationship and also teach us something about the value and limits of friendship.

Tinker’s Preaching

Bunyan was a popular preacher, perhaps due in part to accounts of his preaching to fellow prisoners in the Bedford jail. After his release from prison, Bunyan’s reputation grew as he frequently traveled to London and the surrounding areas to preach, with as many as three thousand eager dissenters gathering to hear him. Evidently, on one occasion, no less than twelve hundred people met as early as 7:00 on a “dark winter’s morning” to sit under his preaching (Joseph Ivimey, Life of Mr. John Bunyan, 295).

From time to time, “among his auditors” in London “was his friend and admirer, Dr. John Owen.” On hearing the news that Owen appreciated Bunyan’s preaching, King Charles II allegedly asked Owen “how he who had so much learning could hear a tinker preach.” To which Owen apparently replied, “May it please your majesty, had I the tinker’s abilities for preaching, I would most gladly relinquish all my learning” (Ivimey, A History of the Baptists, 2:41).

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