Sweet Fiction and Sweet Truth Alike: The Background and Influence of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’

Francis Bacon once said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Today I want to introduce you to a book that is worthy of being both chewed and digested. It is The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.

The background of The Pilgrim’s Progress

Early Life

John Bunyan lived 1628-1688 – 59 years in the middle of one of the most tumultuous centuries that this world has ever seen. Bunyan himself came from a poor family, the son of a tinker, and he knew little about religion.

But around 1642, dramatic events converged on his life. In that year, England devolved into Civil War. The cause of the conflict was simple: Charles I, king of England, desired political power, and Parliament refused to give it.

Eventually the Parliamentarians would triumph. Charles I was beheaded, and a new leader, Oliver Cromwell, filled the political void. It was an exciting period, and it was a formational time for Mr. Bunyan.

For Bunyan himself was involved in the conflict, fighting for a time for the Parliamentarians. We know about his time in the war; he does record that he was once assigned to a certain location in the siege of a town, but another man filled his place, and he later learned, that his proxy had been killed in the fighting.

After the war, Bunyan picked up his trade as a tinker. He also married a poor but pious English girl, who apparently owned nothing at all except two books, The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven by Arthur Dent, and The Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayley. Bunyan found the books interesting, but they did little to change him.

In fact, Bunyan was a notorious sinner in the town. He was especially guilty of cursing. One day, after cursing up a storm, he was confronted by a village woman – not herself a picture of piety – who derided him as such a notorious swearer that he should be ashamed of himself. Bunyan evidently was. He determined to change.

And change he did. By sheer willpower, he began to remove the practice of cursing. Then he decided to change other aspects of life. He gradually became known – to the astonishment of his town – as a moral man, and he loved to talk about morality.

But one day, while walking through the town, he met three women sitting on a doorstep, speaking of the things of God. Bunyan was eager to join the conversation, since of course he was such a moral person himself. But when he began to listen, he suddenly realized that the sweetness and beauty of their religion was something he had never experienced. He was a stranger to the sweetness of Jesus Christ.

Well, these ladies introduced him to their nonconformist church – that is, a local church that was not part of the Anglican establishment. It was here that Bunyan found peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Persecution & Writing

But now politics intervened in his life. By 1660, Oliver Cromwell was dead, and England began to desire a king. Charles II, son of Charles I, took the throne. He had little patience for those who had killed his father, or for the puritans, who had resisted his father’s tyranny.

Under the leadership of Charles II, Parliament passed four religious bills:

1. Corporation Act (1661) – forbade election to the government office of any city or corporation, unless one had been to the Lord’s Supper in the Church of England in the last 12 months
2. Act of Uniformity (1662) – required the use of the book of common prayer in order to hold any office within government or church; required ordination by an Anglican Bishop
3. Conventicle Act (1664) – forbade religious assemblies of more than 5 people outside of the Church of England
4. Five Mile Act (1665) – forbade clergymen from living within 5 miles of a parrish within which they had been expelled

Bunyan, by now, was a gospel preacher. His first wife had died, and he had married again, this time to an 18-year old girl named Elizabeth. Now, in 1660, she was pregnant, and Bunyan was in trouble with the law, due to his preaching – technically a violation of an older law from 1592.

In 1661 Bunyan was imprisoned. He was promised freedom if he would promise not to preach, but Bunyan refused. And he refused, in fact, for 12 years. For it was not until 1672, when the king issued a ‘Declaration of Indulgence,’ that Bunyan was freed from the Bedford Jail.

It was a long and trying time for Bunyan, but during that time, he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Summary of Contents

It is the story of a man named Christian who leaves his home – the ‘City of Destruction’ to go on a journey to the Celestial City.

Along the way, Christian meets many adventures. At one point, while fleeing the city, he is directed away from the cross of Christ to the town of morality – an attempt to gain righteousness by works.

Passing through a town called Vanity Fair, Christian and his friend Faithful are confronted with all the temptations and hatred of the world.

Later, imprisoned in a terrible place called doubting castle, Christian forgets that he has been given a key called ‘promise’ that could free him from this terrible place.

These are only a few of the harrowing adventures that Christian experiences along the way. But the whole tale describes the everyday course of life that the Christian faces, and it describes different trials and different situations that Christians face, by describing them in terms of actual people and specific places that Christian experiences.

The style of the book is simple and written in the common man’s language. Now, that ‘common man’s language’ is still old for us today. It is not too difficult to understand, but if the language is hindrance for you, there are also revisions in more modern English.

Later Life

I mentioned that Bunyan was freed from jail in 1672. He found that his book The Pilgrim’s Progress was quite successful, especially among the common folk of England and America. Eventually he decided to pick up his pen again, and to write Part II of the Pilgrim’s Progress.

This is the story of Christian’s wife, Christiana, who eventually leaves the City of Destruction as well.

She also goes on pilgrimage to the Celestial City. She encounters many of the same situations that her husband faced, but her story is quite unique and different. It is also different because she is accompanied by her sons.

Alexander Witherspoon writes of this second part, “It clarifies and reinforces and justifies the story of Part I. The beam of Bunyan’s spotlight is broadened to include Christian’s family and other men, women, and children; the incidents and accidents of everyday life are more numerous, the joys of the pilgrimage tend to outweigh the hardships; and to the faith and hope of Part I is added in abundant measure that greatest of virtues, charity.”

Out of prison, Bunyan threw himself into ministry. He became one of the most famous nonconformist ministers, especially because of his book, but he refused to leave his small village church for larger congregations in London. In fact, in 1676, Bunyan was imprisoned a second time for his preaching, but he was only in jail for about 6 months.

In 1688 he took a trip to London. He was caught in a storm and developed a fever, dying there on August 31.

The influence of The Pilgrim’s Progress

I mentioned that The Pilgrim’s Progress was written in a simple, plain English style. This is part of what made it so popular among the English people. Bunyan became famous because of his book. Tens of thousands began to read it.

It is difficult to tell the impact of this book, because no one knows how many people it influenced. But certainly it did influence them. It is said that every English household that owned a copy of the Bible also owned a copy of The Pilgrim’s Progress

Influence in America

And that wasn’t limited to England. The book quickly found its way onto ships that carried it to the new world. America received The Pilgrim with even more excitement than England did. In fact, because the book was considered a ‘common man’s book,’ it was generally printed on poor paper with cheap binding. But in America, a deeply religious country, the book was printed on quality paper in expensive binding. Bunyan himself marveled, writing that “Tis in New England under such advance / Receives there so much loving countenance … so comely doth my Pilgrim walk / That of him thousands daily sing and talk.”

Indeed, outside of Bibles, almanacs, and reference materials, it was one of only seven books in America that would sell over a thousand copies by 1690.

The rage to read The Pilgrim’s Progress continued well past Bunyan’s lifetime. It was popular in America that, it has been said, familiarity with the book was once considered the ‘mark of being a good American.’

It shows up in popular culture. Louisa May Alcott’s famous novel Little Women, for example, mentions that the sisters often read the book.

Another famous American writer, Harriet Beecher Stowe, considered it to be her favorite book apart from the Bible. She taught the book to her children, and she even thought in terms of the book, considering her own life to be a pilgrimage, and describing it in the wording of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

John Newton

But let me turn to a few other examples of people who individually profited so much from this book.

One is John Newton. We know him as the author of ‘Amazing Grace,’ the slave trader and slave ship captain who came to know Christ, left his slaving, and preached Christ.

At Tuesday night prayer meetings in Olney, Bunyan taught not only from the Bible, but also used The Pilgrim’s Progress as a book to instruct believers in the faith. He himself wrote a preface to the book, and he footnoted it with hymns, written both by himself and by William Cooper.

One of them, titled The Pilgrim’s Song, reads, “The promised land of peace / Faith keeps in constant view; / How different from the wilderness / We now are passing through!”

William Cowper

And did I mention William Cowper? He was also greatly influenced by the book. He was a close friend of Newton’s, and the author of such sweet songs as “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.”

One of the first books that he learned to read – at the age of four or five – was The Pilgrim’s Progress.

In poetic form, he described John Bunyan as,

“Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale / Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail; / Whose hum’rous vein, strong sense and simple style, / May teach the gayest, make the gravest smile;

To literary critics who said that The Pilgrim’s Progress was too simple, Cowper advised them to,

“Revere the man, whose PILGRIM marks the road, / And guides the PROGRESS of the soul to God.”

Charles Spurgeon

Another famous English Christian who benefitted much was Charles Spurgeon.

At the age of 19, Charles Spurgeon decided to give a copy of this book to a young lady who was facing spiritual difficulties. He wrote inside it, “Miss Thompson, with desires for her progress in the blessed pilgrimage. From, C. H. Spurgeon, April 20, 1854.”

In fact, Charles soon married ‘Miss Thompson,’ and the book was a beloved treasure for both of them. Charles claimed to have read it over 100 times in his life.

He said about the book, “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.” (Spurgeon)

Susannah Spurgeon said of that gift – “I do not think my beloved had, at that time, any other thought concerning me than to help a struggling soul Heavenward; but I was greatly impressed by his concern for me, and the book became very precious as well as helpful.”

But why should you read Bunyan? Charles said it this way: “Read anything of his [Bunyan’s], and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems—without continually making us feel and say, ‘Why, this man is a living Bible!’ Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God. I commend his example to you, beloved.”

Mission Fields

But what about in other places? Have believers outside of Europe and America benefitted from this book? Certainly.

The book was also a favorite on the mission field. One of the primary goals for missionaries was to print the Bible in the language of the people. The Pilgrim’s Progress often came soon after. In fact, it was common for them to translate and print The Pilgrim’s Progress even before they had finished their translation of the Bible!

And it was used everywhere. An 1847 London Missionary Society ship headed to Tahiti with 5000 Tahitian Bibles and 4000 Tahitian copies of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

One of the most remarkable stories of this book was its use in Madagascar. Christian missionaries were kicked off the island in 1835. There were only 1500 Christians among the natives. Then began 26 years of horror. Christianity was illegal. Hundreds were punished and many tied, some the victims of torture.

The only resources that this Christian community had were the books printed by the missionaries. And those books were, primarily, the Bible and The Pilgrim’s Progress. It is said, in fact, that the church had grown to 7000 by that time.

Henry Martyn

Finally, let me mention the story of Henry Martyn, a Christian missionary to India and Persia in the early 1800s.

As he considered the mission field, he wondered whether to pursue marriage with his sweetheart Lydia. One evening, after wrestling deeply with this question and talking about it with his friends, he records in his journal,

“Continued all the evening writing sermon, and reading Pilgrim’s Progress, with successions of vivid emotions of pain and pleasure. My heart was sometimes ready to break with agony at being torn from its dearest idol, and at other times I was visited by a few moments of sublime and enraptured joy. Such is the conflict; why have my friends mentioned this subject? It has torn open old wounds, and I am again bleeding.” (June 8, 1804)

Henry took no action at that time, and he later died before given the opportunity to marry Lydia. But while on his way to India, aboard a British troop ship in 1805, he frequently recorded in his journal that he was reading The Pilgrim’s Progress along with his Bible. He also read it to the soldiers on board.

He reports of one evening on board,

“I retired soon after dinner, and read the Pilgrim’s Progress to the men, who attended in great numbers to hear, chiefly because the rain prevented their being on deck. I never perceived so much of the extraordinary value of this book till now. I am now got beyond most of my poor hearers, but it cannot be helped. The latter part of a Christian’s course may be more blessed to them than the beginning. But as I go on, the book furnishes me with opportunities of making a thousand useful remarks I should never have though of else.”

Later, while stationed in India as a chaplain of the British East India Company, he would often read the book to the English and the Indians in a local hospital. He writes,

“Great attention. I think the Word is not going forth in vain. In the afternoon read at the hospital…The man told me that the men at the hospital were very attentive and thankful that I came amongst them. Passed the evening with great joy and peace in singing hymns.’

Another time he writes, “Found fifty sick at the hospital, who heard The Pilgrim’s Progress with great delight…”

Lessons from ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’

We need to reclaim the idea of the Christian life as a pilgrimage

This is a very biblical idea:

1. Your statutes are my songs In the house of my pilgrimage. (Psalm 119:54)
2. “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner like all my fathers.  (Psalm 39:12)

We do not all face the same challenges as Christian did, nor in the same order; but we are all pilgrims.

This is the 50,000 foot view of the Christian life, but it is easily forgotten.

We need to reclaim the practice of devotional reading

This can and must start with the Holy Bible, but there are certain other books which Christians have turned to over the last several centuries, especially the pilgrim’s progress.

1. But the first problem is that we are too busy.
2. The second problem is that we have lost the art of devotional reading. We don’t know how to do it.

We need to reclaim the idea that every event, every occurrence in life, is meant to be interpreted within the sovereignty of God, for our edification.

This is what Hebrews tells us – that he chastens us to promote the peaceable fruit of righteousness. This is what Scripture tells us. This is the fundamental background of The Pilgrim’s Progress: that everything Christian faces is spiritual in nature, in one way or another.

For these reasons, I would commend to you the practice of reading The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Finally, I would conclude with the words of John Newton in his preface to The Pilgrim’s Progress:

“If you are indeed asking the way to Zion with your face thitherward, I bid you good speed. Behold an open door is set before you, which none can shut. Yet prepare to endure hardship, for the way lies through many tribulations. There are hills and valleys to be passed, lions and dragons to be met with, but the Lord of the hill will guide and guard his people. “Put on the whole armor of God, fight the good fight of faith.” Beware of the Flatterer. Beware of the Enchanted Ground. See the Land of Beulah, yea, the city of Jerusalem itself is before you: There Jesus the forerunner waits. To welcome travelers home.”