John Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress

John Bunyan, a self-educated Puritan preacher, wrote his classic book The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come while he was in jail in 1675 for refusing to conform to the official Church of England. The book, an allegory describing the journey of a Christian from this world to the next, gives a vivid picture of the religious beliefs of Bunyan and other Nonconformists, who rejected the teaching of the state church. In the first part of Pilgrim’s Progress, written originally to stand alone, Christian, the titular hero, becomes increasingly convinced that he and his community are under a sentence of judgment. Unable to persuade anyone else to flee destruction with him, he sets off alone on a journey to salvation. The second part tells the story of Christian’s wife, Christiana, and their children on the same difficult journey.

Pilgrim’s Progress, first published in 1678, is a Puritan sermon in the form of a novel, using powerful and charming storytelling to teach the lesson that the world is the venue for the battle of spiritual forces and that victory comes only through denying the world to seek salvation. Bunyan’s writings, of which Pilgrim’s Progress is far and away the best known, allowed him to reach a huge audience despite his incarceration. His account of a religious “everyman” made him a celebrity in his own day and has inspired countless people ever since.