JOHN WYCLIFFE: Champion of the Bible

For centuries, England lived under a system in which Scripture was locked in Latin—accessible only to clergy and withheld from the very people to whom God had given it. Into this world stepped John Wycliffe: Oxford scholar, fearless theologian, and the first great champion of the English Bible.

Drawing on rigorous research and the surviving writings of Wycliffe and his followers, JOHN WYCLIFFE: Champion of the Bible traces the extraordinary story of the man who declared that Holy Scripture—not popes, councils, or tradition—is the supreme authority for faith and life. His call to return to the Word ignited movements that endured persecution, reshaped English Christianity, and laid the foundations upon which Hus, Luther, and Tyndale would build.

Readers will journey from Wycliffe’s Yorkshire roots to the lecture halls of Oxford, the debates of Parliament, and the controversies that nearly cost him his life. They will meet the Lollards—poor priests who risked imprisonment and death to carry English Scriptures to farm workers, craftsmen, and families—and they will see how Wycliffe’s influence continued long after his enemies exhumed and burned his bones.

More than a biography, this is the story of how God used one scholar to turn a spark into a movement. It reminds us that the Bible we hold so freely today once cost others everything, and that the authority of God’s Word remains the unshakable anchor of Christian discipleship in every generation.