John Bunyan and the Grace of Fearing God

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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This brief book is a look at the life – spiritual and natural – of John Bunyan and his understanding of the fear of the Lord as traced through his writings.

I'll be the first to admit that I have only the most basic understanding of Bunyan beyond The Pilgrim's Progress and that quotation from John Owen about his preaching (only cited twice in this book), so I can't judge the scholarship of Beeke and Smalley when it comes to that. I can say that I thought their approach to both the man and the material could've been deeper. The brief biographical material did everything it needed to – it wasn't too long and it covered the bases, giving an understanding of what he went through and his historical context.

After the biographical section, the authors turn to the Fear of God, and soon lay out this distinction:

...Bunyan deduced that God forbids some fear as ungodly, but commends another kind of fear. This distinction proves to be crucial for Bunyan's theology, allowing him to differentiate unhealthy, sinful fear from the spiritually sound and fruitful fear of the Lord.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from P&R Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for this post – thanks to both for this.
N.B.: As this was an ARC, any quotations above may be changed in the published work – I will endeavor to verify them as soon as possible.