John Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress

Questions for Further Study

• 1. What impact did the English Civil War, which began in 1641 and continued intermittently until 1651, have on the writings of Bunyan?
• 2. In seventeenth-century England, religion was a topic of widespread discussion and sometimes dispute. In addition to the Church of England (the Anglican Church) and the Catholic Church, there were a variety of religious sects: Quakers, Baptists, Puritans, the Diggers, the Levellers, and others. Additionally, debate raged over such matters as predestination versus free will. How did these debates influence Bunyan’s life and the shape of Pilgrim’s Progress?
• 3. In seventeenth-century England, disputes arose about proper conduct. Many Puritans (a group that included Bunyan, though nominally he was a Baptist) opposed practices such as sports, festivals, plays, masques (short dramas, usually allegorical, performed by masked actors), mumming (pantomimes), and other supposedly pagan activities that they regarded as sinful. Many of these were rural activities. Why did the Puritans regard these activities as sinful?
• 4. Just as Christianity split as a result of the Protestant Reformation, Islam split in its early days as a result of a dispute about who should succeed Muhammad as the leader of Islam. The result was the First Fitna, or First Islamic Civil War (656–661). Later in that century, the Second Fitna in the 680s created additional turmoil. In what ways did this split resemble or differ from the split in Christianity?
• 5. The religious disputes of the seventeenth century, in which Bunyan played a part, continue to influence religious debate in the twenty-first century. What are some of the religious issues that are still debated? How do the roots of these issues extend back to Bunyan’s time?