Introduction To Pilgrim's Progress

This was C.H. Spurgeon's assessment of Pilgrim's Progress:

Next to the Bible, the book that I value most is John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'. I believe I have read it through at least a hundred times. It is a volume of which I never seem to tire; and the secret of its freshness is that it is so largely compiled from the Scriptures. It is really biblical teaching put into the form of a simple yet very striking allegory.

(Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress, p11)

This high view of Bunyan is reflected in the number of occasions during Spurgeon's published sermons in which Bunyan is quoted. Barry Horner states:

Within the total of 3561 published sermons that comprise Spurgeon's published pulpit ministry, the name of John Bunyan occurs 779 times ... Making certain allowances, this means that Spurgeon made reference to Bunyan, on average, in every sixth sermon that he preached over a period of thirty-five years.

(Pilgrim's Progress: Themes and Issues, p284).

Spurgeon's high view of Bunyan is reason enough to pay close attention to what has been one of the most influential authors, and one of the most famous books in the history of the church. Bunyan lived during interesting times, times of ferment and change, and he is frequently studied by historians, sociologists and students of literature for that reason. But the reason we want to study him is precisely the reason that Spurgeon was drawn to him over and over again: the fact that his writing so much reflects the teaching of the Bible.

John Bunyan: His Life and Times

To set Pilgrim's Progress in its context, we need to pay some attention to the life of its author. Bunyan was born at Elstow, near Bedford, in 1628. He was brought up as a tinker, like his father, and enlisted in the army in 1644, at the age of sixteen, after his mother died. He served in the army for 2 years, during which time he had a formative experience, in which a soldier who took his place in a siege was shot in the head and died. This left a lasting impression on him.

Bunyan married, but little is known of his family life. Two books were influential on him spiritually, The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven and The Practice of Piety, and for four years he went through an intense spiritual struggle, which he recounts in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. In 1653 he joined Mr. Gifford's church in Bedford, and shortly afterwards began to preach. 1660 was an important year in the history of the church, with the restoration of the monarchy and the establishment of the church. One consequence was that the authority required all preachers to submit to the established, episcopalian religion. Those who did not were treated severely, including imprisonment. Bunyan was arrested for unlawful preaching in 1660, and again in 1661; when he refused to abstain from preaching he was imprisoned and remained in prison until 1672. Several of his works (including his autobiography) were written during his time in prison.

On his release, Bunyan became pastor of the church at Bedford, but seems to have been imprisoned again during the winter of 1675-6. It was during this time that he composed the Pilgrim's Progress, which was first published in 1678. The second part came later, in 1685. Bunyan died in 1688.

The seventeenth century was a time of civil and ecclesiastical controversy. It was a time of great movements and struggles, following from the Reformation movement of the previous hundred years. It was the age that produced the Authorised Version of the Bible, that led to the sailing of the Mayflower pilgrims to America in 1620 to escape the tyranny of King James I, that saw the convening of the Westminster Assembly and the eventual publication of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It was the age of civil unrest, of Oliver Cromwell's leadership of the commonwealth and the parliamentary army, of the restoration of the monarchy and the establishment of episcopacy, and of the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688, when William of Orange was proclaimed king.

These were the tumultuous times that produced such notable Puritans as Richard Sibbes, Thomas Goodwin, John Milton, Richard Baxter, John Owen, John Flavel, Matthew Henry -- and John Bunyan. In Scotland, it was the age of the Covenanters, and the period of such luminaries as Samuel Rutherford, George Gillespie and Richard Cameron. In the secular world, the seventeenth century also saw the beginnings of the age of Enlightenment, which would eventually lead to the exaltation of human reason.

Lloyd-Jones has suggested in more than one place that the reason we ought to study the men of the seventeenth century is because their world was similar to ours. He says that Bunyan was primarily a preacher:

He wrote his books because he was a pastor and because he wanted to help the poor people who were members of his church in Bedford. This was the source of his great concern about this whole question of the relationship of Christians to one another ... one of the chief reasons for our interest in these 17th-century men, as we have been reminded several times already, is that our world is strangely similar to theirs. I, for one, am interested in them mainly for that reason, that we may learn from them, and watch them, as they battled with the same problems and difficulties which confront us.

(The Puritans: their origins and successors, pp390-1)

Lloyd-Jones goes on to show how the controversies of the day had a profound influence on Bunyan, as did his own personal experiences. His spiritual experiences and his imprisonments are both reflected in Pilgrim's Progress. So we need the Puritans. We need them to point us to God in a world of confusion and change. We need them to ground us in the unchanging and unshakeable foundation of biblical truth in times of unrest, chaos and upheaval. We need them to show us how to worship, in a day of confusion and of levity. We need them to show us how to bring all our activities, interests and abilities under the sovereignty of God, so that we can fulfill what is the chief end of man: to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever. In the words of James Packer,

They saw life whole, for they saw its Creator as Lord of each department of it, and their purpose was that 'holiness to the Lord' might be written over it in its entirety.

(Among God's Giants, p34)

Above all, we need the Puritans, and we need John Bunyan, to enable us to understand Christian experience. So Packer:

The great Puritans became superb pastors. The depth and unction of their 'practical and experimental' expositions in the pulpit was no more outstanding than was their skill in the study in applying spiritual physic to sick souls. From Scripture they mapped the often bewildering terrain of the life of faith and fellowship with God with great thoroughness (see Pilgrim's Progress for a pictorial gazeteer), and their acuteness and wisdom in diagnosing spiritual malaise and setting out the appropriate biblical remedies was outstanding. They remain the classic pastors of Protestantism, just as men like Whitefield and Spurgeon stand as its classic evangelists.

(Among God's Giants, p34).

So I hope the reason we are coming to Pilgrim's Progress is not merely to study an outstanding piece of literature, although Bunyan's great book is no less than that. I hope we are coming to it in order to put our souls into the hands of this great Puritan pastor, who is able to disclose to us so powerfully what it means to live the Christian life, so that the biblical teaching which infuses this book will inform our minds and touch our hearts.

What is Pilgrim's Progress?

To answer this question in the most obvious way, it is the story of the progress of a pilgrim. That draws our attention to two things in connection with the central character, Christian: what he is (a pilgrim) and what he is doing (progressing in his pilgrimage). This in addition highlights two facts: to be a Christian is to be on a journey; and to be a Christian is to advance in that journey.

Bunyan is teaching me here that to be a Christian is to be on a journey. In other words, Pilgrim's Progress is not a tract about conversion. Bunyan does not equate a living faith with being converted. This is a point we must labour to maintain: we are not commissioned to make converts in all the nations, but to make disciples. Now it is self-evident that one cannot be a follower of Jesus Christ without having some kind of conversion experience; but conversion is not the end of the process but the beginning. If we are the followers of Christ, we are on a journey, 'strangers and pilgrims in the world', seeking a heavenly city. We are not simply Christians, but travellers, who have left the city of destruction behind, and who are marching to Zion.

But Bunyan is also teaching that the pilgrimage to Zion is not an easy one. There are dangers, difficulties, temptations and enemies to face along the way. There are blessings, encouragements, comforts and friends to enjoy too. But the point is that whatever there is, there is no going back. This is Pilgrim's Progress, not pilgrim's regress! Going forward in the Christian life means that there are obstacles to be overcome, battles to be fought and many issues to be engaged with en route. And above all, the teaching of this classic book is that God's grace and strength are always sufficient for us.

There are a couple more introductory points which ought to be made. First, the Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory. That means that it is painting a picture in which the pictures themselves represent something, but they can never be the whole truth, or the last truth about the things that they represent. For example, in Pilgrim's Progress, Christian walks away from his wife and family and away from their home to go out on pilgrimage. But Bunyan is not advocating that people should walk away from their family responsibilities when they are converted. The picture is of the individual and personal nature of living the Christian life, but it is not saying everything that is to be said about that life.

Some commentators also find difficulty, for example, in the way in which Christian dies. He goes across the river of death in the company of Hopeful, his friend. On this, Barry Horner writes:

While having the most affectionate regard for Bunyan's ministry, and specifically for his literary magnum opus, I too would disagree with one feature of the Pilgrim's Progress. It is that at the River of Death Christian and Hopeful cross over together; indeed, Hopeful is very much a helping companion to Christian as they encounter this fearful trial. However, for the Christian, death is always a solo experience. Perhaps Hopeful is here intended to represent that loving assistance and encouragement which an earthly friend in Christ can offer to a departing saint.

(Pilgrim's Progress: Themes and Issues, p468, n.21).

I want to say 'No' -- that is absolutely the wrong way to interpret this. Allegory does not mean we have to interpret Christian and Hopeful as two distinct individuals in real life. The allegory arises out of the fact that in death there is hope for the Christian, in spite of natural doubts and fears. This hope is represented allegorically as two people in the story. Bunyan knows that death is a singularly individual experience.

Allegory can mean building up composite pictures, so that the same themes and objects are looked at in the same way. For example, in Pilgrim's Progress, we read about the city of Destruction and about Vanity Fair. Both of these are different locations encountered by Christian at different stages of his journey; but the point is that both of these images are showing us the world from different perspectives. The city of Destruction is the world under the wrath of God; Vanity Fair is the same world viewed from the perspective of its allurements, temptations and false promises. Similarly, Bunyan has different characters on the pilgrimage: Christian, Faithful and Hopeful all go to Heaven. It is not that we are one of these more than any other: it is that we should be all three. Part of the allegorical nature of the book is in building up this composition of pictures.

So the book is an allegory: a word-picture (often composite, complex and multi-perspectival) of the journey a believer makes from a state of nature into a state of grace, and onwards into a state of glory.

Secondly, Pilgrim's Progress is not a children's book. Many good children's versions of the first part of the book have appeared in print, and there are scenes in the book which are forever coloured for me by the children's version I had when I was young. I read of Christian's encounter with Apollyon, and I have a very vivid picture before my mind! However, Barry Horner is correct (Themes and Issues, esp. chapter 19) to remind us of how children's versions (and even board games based on Pilgrim's Progress) can distort the message, either by ommitting large chunks of text or accompanying it with inappropriate visual aids. The book was written to instruct adults, and to give them an insight into the Christian life.

Thirdly, I want to say that arguably, the great theme of Pilgrim's Progress is that the test of genuine spirituality is growth in holiness. I am reminded of the distinction Professor John Murray wishes to make between definitive and progressive sanctification. By these terms Murray meant that at the point of regeneration, a person is made definitively holy: he or she is made a saint. But there must be growth in holiness:

The condition of the believer in this life is not one of a static status quo. There is abundant evidence to show that it is one of progression, a progression both negagive and positive in character; it embraces both mortification and sanctification ... the Holy Spirit works in the interests of glorifying Christ, and of bringing to perfection the goal of the redemptive process.

(Murray, Collected Writings, Vol 2, pp295, 298)

That leads to a life of dependence on Christ, for the communion and empowering which he alone can give us, through his Spirit, by means of his word:

The process, therefore, that progressive sanctification involves is one directed to conformity to the image of God's Son, a conformity attained not through external imitative assimilation, but through an impartation of the fulness of grace in Christ, an impartation which flows through a living organism that subsists and acts on an immensely higher plane than any form of organic or animate life with which we are acquainted in our earthly existence. As this applies to our responsibility and privilege, it means that in progressive sanctification the basic consideration is that we must recognise increasingly the implications of union and communion with Christ, and of communication with him.

(Murray, Collected Writings, Vol 2, p304).

Pilgrim's Progress is going to teach us that to grow in holiness is a daily battle, in which there will be setbacks and encouragements, but which is a battle worth fighting. And it is our perseverance in that fight that is the supremely genuine sign that we have left the city of Destruction.

© Iain D. Campbell 2003