Christian lived in the City of Destruction and one day chanced to be reading
in a Book, whereby he learned that his city was destined for destruction.
He had Burden on his back, and was at a loss how to flee to
destruction until he met Evangelist, who told him to go to the gate
that stands at the beginning of the Way. Unable to persuade
his wife, children, and neighbors, he left the city to seek the
gate. One neighbor, Pliable, comes with him on the promise of
an eternal kingdom, golden crowns, and all sorts of wonders, but when they
reached the Slough of Despond, which is before the gate, he returned
home. Christian continued in the Slough, slowly because of
his Burden, and after a lecture by Evangelist following his agreeing with
Mr. Worldly-Wise, he reaches the gate and knocks.
The gate is opened and Christian enters the Way. Interpreter shows him a
number of sights that illustrate lessons of the Way. At a castle
he saw many well-armed men preventing entrance, but one man armed
himself and cut through them with vigor and not a few wounds, whereupon
he was let in and given the beautiful raiment of the other inhabitants.
The lesson is, of course, to persevere in the hard task of
reaching the Caelestial City. After being thus taught about
Grace, Perseverance, the dangers of Sin, &c, Interpreter sent him on
his way. When he reached the Cross, his Burden loosed itself
and tumbled into the Sepulchre below. Three angels gave him clean
Raiment in exchange for his rags, a Roll with a Seal on it to encourage
him, and a Mark on his forehead. Christian rejoiced at the
forgiveness of his Sin and the removal of his Burden, and sang a song.
As he continued, he met Formalist and Hypocrisy (who had not entered at the gate) and informed them that the only way
to be saved and arrive at the Caelestial City is to start at the gate,
but they that was too far away for them. He then arrived at the
hill of Difficulty, made it halfway up and upon reaching the Arbor put
there by the Lord of the Hill, he rested and fell asleep. When he
woke up it was dark and he hurried on. Much later, he
realized he forgot his Roll, and had to go back to look for it. He
reached a house, and was given lodging and was questioned about his theology by the
daughters of the owner. They showed him many wonders (Moses' rod,
Samson's jawbone, &c), and the next day armed him with a sword and
armor and he went on his way.
This took him to the Valley of
Humiliation, where he was opposed by Apollyon. Apollyon was
determined to restore Christian to the kingdom of Apollyon's master,
but Christian refused his arguments and they fought long and hard.
Though Apollyon came close to killing Christian, Christian proved
the victor. Christian then sang a song of thanks. After this,
he had to go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He met
some travelers returning from the Valley, telling stories of pits and
dragons and misery. But the way to the Caelestial City was
through the Valley, and Christian was eager to reach the City, so he
continued. This was a dark valley and a narrow path, with a Quag
on one side and a Ditch on the other, with Hell so close beside that
often flame and smoke came near him, as well as fiends worse than
Apollyon who had no fear of his sword. So he started using
another weapon, All-Prayer. And in this valley of terror,
Christian considered whether he should retrace his steps, but decided
to continue in the strength of the Lord. A wicked one
followed him quietly, speaking Blasphemies quietly in a voice like
Christian's. Christian mourned over these Blasphemies, though he did
not realize that they were not his. He heard a voice saying that
he would fear no evil, for You are with me, and he took comfort that God
was with him and that there were others in the valley who also feared
God.
After Christian left the Valley, he overtook Faith, and the
two began travelling together and discussing the circumstances that led
to each of them seeking the Caelestial City. They also met
Talkative who said the things that Pilgrims in the Way say, but when it
came to doing them, always found an excuse; despite attempts at
persuading him to walk his talk, he remained convinced that he would
enter the Caelestial City with them.
They came to the town of Vanity, where there was a year-long fair, Vanity
Fair, where there were sold everything that one might desire in the
world. Being a fair, there were also thieves, cut-throats, and
all manner of men. The two pilgrims were a strange sight to the
people of Vanity Fair and caused a general hubub by refusing the wares
and answering calls of "What will you buy?" with "We buy the Truth."
The pilgrims were arrested for causing a general disturbance, and
after a trial in which citizens of Vanity raised specious claims against
them, Judge Hate-Good condemned Faith to death (as foretold in a
meeting with Evangelist earlier). The chariots and horsemen took
Faith to the Caelestial City, and Christian escaped by divine providence.
The testimony of Faith and Christian during the trial
persuaded Hopeful to join Christian on pilgrimage to the Caelestial
City after he escaped. The two of them met By-Ends, who was
persuaded he was religious, but used whatever means were convenient when
hard times came. After a lengthy discussion with Mr. Save-All and
Mr. Money-Love, whom they also met, Christian and Hopeful silenced the
arguments of the three. By-Ends found the other two more agreeable
company and fell behind. Shortly after, they see Demas off to
the side of the Way, inviting them to provide for themselves by digging
in his silver mine. Christian, having heard about the painful
consequences of turning aside here stops Hopeful from following him,
but By-Ends and his group were likely to be less fortunate.
The Way became rough here, so the two of them followed a smooth green path
running besides the Way. After a while it became night, and they
heard the traveler before them fall into a pit, so they turned back to
find the Way, but they could not. In the morning, the giant
Despair found them, accused them of trespassing (for it was his lands
they were in), and dragged them off to the dungeon of his castle,
Doubting Castle. There they stayed, hungry and despairing, until
Christian remembered his key, named Promise. This key opened all
the locks in the castle and they escaped, but not without waking the
giant, who was fortunatelyso weak from one of his fits that he could not pursue
them. Christian and Hopeful sang a song to celebrate the escape,
and put a warning on the road for future pilgrims.
They came to the Delectable Mountains, where there were shepherds who
showed them several things as a warning, gave them directions on the
way to go when the road parted, and also gave showed them the
Caelestial City through their spyglass. After this they met
Ignorance, who despite Christian and Hopeful's persuasive words, was
convinced that he would be given entrance to the Caelestial City
because of his religiousness and his good deeds. They passed
him by, and Christian told the story of Little-Faith, who was assaulted
by three Rogues: Faint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt, who
robbed him. They would have beat him to death, too, had not
Great-Grace, the King's champion, ridden up and done them battle.
They did not get his Jewels, which were his admission to the
City, and he should have rejoiced because of it, but instead, all along
the Way he bemoaned his fate, that he had to beg because he was robbed.
When the Way divided, they did not know which road to take, and
followed the advice of a black man in a light robe to follow him, but
that way led into a Net, and they were ensnared, at which point the
robe fell off to reveal that man was Flatterer. A Shining
One cut the
Net, led them back to the Way, and because the shepherds had given them
directions (which they did not read) and had warned them about
Flatterer (which they did not heed), he chastened them with his whip,
for "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous,
therefore, and repent." They thanked him and sang a song.
Hopeful then relates how God brought his soul to repentence, in the
city of Vanity while he was enjoying the Fair. They discourse
on Christian living for a while. They see Ignorance, and have
a long talk to try to convince him to that his faith is False.
Ignorance talks a good talk, but ultimately says "I believe
that Christ died for sinners, and that I shall be justified before God
from the Curse, through his gracious acceptance of my obedience to his
law," thus revealing his faith to be that of good works, instead of
relying on Christ's
obedience and his punishment for our disobedience. In the
Enchanted Lands, they heed the Shepherds' warning not to sleep, for
they would sleep forever.
Presently they came to a pleasant land, within sight of the Caelestial
City (which was too bright to look at except through a special
instrument), and filled with pleasant things and fruit trees for the
refreshment of Pilgrims. Many Shining Ones walked there, as
well. In answer to their inquiries about reaching the City,
the Shining Ones told them that they must cross the river (which had no
bridge, and which was deep, but with a depth that varied according to
their belief in the King). They crossed the river, and
Christian found that the waters were over his head, and despaired
because of his sins, but Hopeful encouraged him to faith.
They passed through the River, and were welcomed by a large
host of Pilgrims who had come before, shouting and blowing trumpets,
and were welcomed into the Caelestial City, given crowns of honor
and harps to celebrate with, and with much joy and
gladness entered their master's rest.
Ignorance, too, came to the River, but he crossed it by boat:
the ferryman Vain-Hope. He ascended to the top of
the tall hill on which the City stood, but came alone to the city, and
was denied entrance when he could not produce his Certificate (as he
had not entered the Way through the Gate).
The Pilgrim's Progress
is a pleasant read, being a good story and a good description of the
Christian life told in allegorical form. I am not much of a
fan of allegory, but the allegory is faithful to the Christian life,
and delivers some excellent wisdom and warnings. (For
instance, believing in God's promises will deliver you from doubts)
At times the discourse feels forced, since real people do not
preach theology to each other in their conversation, at least, not
nowadays. Other times the narrative is jarred abit as Bunyan
works in a quote from the Bible that is out of context with either the
story or the original context. However, overall the story and
allegory are worked together in a way that flows well, is interesting,
and is true to the Christian life.
The edition that I read also had a sequel, wherein Christian's wife
Christiana and his four children, along with a maiden who was friends
with Christiana, Mercy, become persuaded that they will perish in the
City of Destruction, and leave to find the Gate that Christian sought.
They met with the very similar things along the road as he did, but all went
very smoothly for them, because Great-Grace traveled with them most of the way to protect them. Along the way Great-Grace
fought all the enemies that might waylay Pilgrims and defeated them,
even destroying the giant Despair and his Doubting Castle. At
the end they were summoned one by one to cross the River and entered the
Caelestial City.
This sequel did not fare so well to my mind. First, pretty
much everything happened they way it did before, except that the party
never encountered any problems because Great-Grace was always there.
So the story was bland because it lacked suspense and it
lacked real conflict. Second, it did not resonate with my experience of the Christian life (or the experience of
other people I know). I have
spent much of my life in Doubting Castle, or being Little Faith, or
wandering along a path that looked like the Way until I woke up and to
being far from the way with no clue how to return there. I
have not gone from one great victory to another, with the difficult parts compressed to a quick summary. So while the
sequel may convey some additional theology that Bunyan did not have a
chance to put in the first part, the story suffered. However,
the end, where each of the Pilgrims are summoned to cross the river was
well done, and I hope that when I am close to death, that I will
receive a gentle summons to cross the River and be able to do
so with the faith of those Pilgrims.
The book is an interesting sociological study. It suggests a
culture where traveling was done on foot, was dangerous, and a journey
where travelers could met fellow travelers, share the journey, and become friends.
After every major event, the Pilgrims sing a short song,
sometimes of thanks for deliverance, sometimes in warning to others.
It is unclear from the book whether impromptu songs were
common practice in Bunyan's days, or whether this reflects the
tradition of Christian hymns, but either way it conjures a Tolkien-esqe
culture where the general populace is poetic and a culture where events
are celebrated in song. The antique language, too, is
interesting. Sometimes the words have changed meanings
slightly (Despond is now despondency). The practice of
capitalizing words that are Important (and used to humorous effect in
the modern age by A.A. Milne in the Winnie the Pooh books) is something
that I kind of like. And being a intellectual at heart, I
wish conversations of my age were discourses on ideas, so I am in some
ways drawn to the dialogues.
Although I was initially not excited about the allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress
grows on me. It is conveys both the experience of
the Christian life as well as wisdom and warnings in a story that is
interesting and memorable. It passes my 100-year test handily
(published in 1678), and I recommend it, particularly to Christians.
Review: 9
The Pilgrim's Progress
probably deserves a 10, since it has been a told seller for several
hundred years. My only fault is that the allegory often gets
in the way of the story. Sometimes not too much, but
sometimes a Bible passage is used in what seems to be seriously
irrelevant or out of context, and the results are jarring. A
similar approach is taken by C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia,
particularly The Lion,
the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but is less jarring there
(but then, it was not intended as an allegory, either).
Still, a recommended read for anyone, particularly Christians.
Copyright © 2009 by Geoffrey Prewett