Historical Insights of the Pilgrims Progress Essay

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HISTORICAL INSIGHTS OFTHE

PILGRIMSPROGRESS

John Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress (1678), as a

conceptualisation of a 17th century puritan mind, gives an insight into

Puritanism as a religious nonconformist group in 17th century England.

The story of The Pilgrims Progress is the supreme exemplar of the

puritan life from birth to death.1 In its characters and events, Bunyan

portrays an allegory of the life of the puritan in 17th century England.

The works depiction of these allegorical elements can be interpreted to

give an historical insight into the religious mentalities and contentions

of the period, albeit through a purely Puritan perspective.

The world inside The Pilgrims Progress is essentially the world

of puritan theology, an attempt to make the puritan world more

tangible...2, where all paths that are not leading directly to God (The

Celestial City) lead directly to some kind of destruction. In the real

world, the puritans rejected everything they saw as distracting

themselves from God. In The Pilgrims Progress, the town of Vanity

Fair tries to tempt Christian with a variety of this-worldly

commodities:

1 Perry Miller and Thomas H. Johnson, The Puritans, (American Book Company,

1938), p.461.2 John Adair, Puritans: Religion and Politics in Seventeenth Century England and

America, (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1998), p.216.


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...this town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair... at

this fair are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades,

places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts,

pleasures, and delights of all sorts...3

Here, Bunyan provides an insight into the perspective of the Puritans

in England. Vanity Fair is a representation Bunyan creates of all the

attachments to this world 4 ; all the things can distract the good

Christian from spiritual matters. This gives an understanding into the

motivations of the Puritans when they rejected and criticised their

contemporaries for their frivolous pastimes.5 The works theological

overtones not only give an insight into Puritanism but also into how

much of a puritan Bunyan actually was.

Bunyans Puritanism becomes an issue for the books historical

perspective when the work seems to indicate theological ambiguities

which may have been unique to Bunyan. Although the early puritans

attempted to bring their beliefs theologically closer to continental

Calvinism with its emphasis on predestination and personal piety6,

certain qualities of Bunyans belief allude closer to Luther7. Despite the

remark of the shepherds telling Christian of the way to the Celestial

City as Safe for those for whom it is to be safe...8, which hints at

Calvinist predestination, at every point in Christians journey he is

3 John Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, (New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005),

p.102.4 Monica Furlong,Puritans Progress: A Study of John Bunyan, (London: Garden City

Press Ltd., 1975), p.41.5 Merry E. Weisner-Hanks, Cambridge History of Europe: Early Modern Europe 1450-

1789, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p.369.6

Weisner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, p.369.7 Furlong,Puritans Progress, p.141.8 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.137.


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presented with alternative paths which he sometimes takes to his own

detriment. For Bunyan, salvation was not an achieved fact but rather a

work of many steps.9 This seems to downplay the role of predestination

in Bunyans theology and in the theology of The Pilgrims Progress.

This however seems to portray a contradiction in puritan thinking, but

it was a contradiction that did actually exist.10

Further theological ambiguities can be found in the text

implying an endorsement of antinomianism, a growing sentiment in

nonconformists of the period. However these provide more of a

portrayal of the religious and political contentions of the period rather

than theology. Bunyan makes repeated disparaging portrayals of the

law as either contrary to or a hindrance to the good Christian life.

When Christian attempts to go to the town of Morality by the Law to

have Mr Legality release his burden of sin, he must pass by Mt. Sinai

(an embodiment of the law) but is prevented by the fear that the hill

should fall on his head.11 When Christian is being shown scenes of the

final judgement in the House of Interpreter, he is told of those who

sought to hide themselves under mountains12 (another reference to

Mt. Sinai). In the town of Vanity Fair, Christian and Faithful are tried

before a judge and jury and use their faith as justification to be free

from the courts influence. All of this could be seen as evidence of

antinomianism on Bunyans part, and his contemporaries in the higher

9 Furlong,Puritans Progress ,p.14210

A.L. Morton, Pilgrims Progress, History Workshop Journal, 5, no.1, (1978), p.7.11 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.2512 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.43


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classes did criticise him for what they saw as little books of

antinomian spirit13, but this is more likely to be an expression of what

Bunyan saw as the oppressiveness of the law 14 and the Puritan

objections to the structure of the Church of England.15 The seemingly

antinomian themes in The Pilgrims Progress a more a result of

Bunyans open criticism of the gentry.16 This criticism is noticeable in

the depiction of the nobility of the town of Vanity Fair:

...our noble prince Beelzebub, and... his honourable friends,whose names are the Lord Old Man, the Lord Carnal Delight,

the Lord Luxurious, the Lord Desire of Vain Glory, my old Lord

Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, with all the rest of our nobility17

The puritan movement had spread down from the middleclass gentry

after the Elizabethan period.18 This characterisation of the nobility is

an example of Bunyans, and to a larger extent, the puritan

underclass, bias towards the aristocracy and the popish holdovers of

the Anglican Church.19 Although appearing antinomian, these themes

are more a result of politics than of Bunyans theology and his biased

view of the higher classes can partially be explained by the fact that

Bunyan had little contact with the aristocracy except as a bench of

magistrates.20 However these themes give an example of the influence

13 Christopher Hill, John Bunyan and His Publics, History Today, 38, no.10, (1988),

p.19.14 Michael Mullet, John Bunyan in Context, (Keele: Keele University Press, 1996),

p.138.15 Weisner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, p.369.16 Hill, John Bunyan and His Publics, p.19.17 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.109.18

Furlong,Puritans Progress ,p. 28.19 Weisner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, p.369.20 Morton, Pilgrims Progress, p.5.


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of antinomian type thought during the period that were adopted by the

Quakers, Muggletonians, Ranters, and other nonconformists.21 Bunyan

has portrayed the idea that although he believes that the law is

important, grace is inevitably superior to it.22 Just like Bunyan gives a

record of the reception of new ideas of empiricism in the character of

Atheist, he gives record of the influence of antinomian thought in

Christians encounters with the law. In this way, The Pilgrims

Progress gives a justification and description of the ideology behind the

non-conformist religious movements of 17th century England.

The presence of the nonconformists in England at the time is

portrayed in The Pilgrims Progress, and not just in the form of the

puritan archetype character of Christian. Both the characters of

Talkative and Ignorance portray Bunyans critical perception of the

Ranters and Quakers who were active religious forces in his time. This

characterisation of Talkative is alluded to by Bunyans reference in his

Some Gospel Truths Opened (1656):

...men that at this day so deluded by the quakers, and other

pernicious doctrines; but those who thought it enough to be

talkers of the gospel23

The appearance of these two characters gives a historical insight into

the reception of the Ranters and the Quakers by the wider community,

21 Owen C. Watkins, The Puritan Experience, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.,

1972), p.90.22 Mullet, John Bunyan in Context, p.138.23

George Offor ed., The Works of John Bunyan: With an Introduction to EachTreatise, Notes, and a Sketch of His Life, Times, and Contemporaries

By John Bunyan, (Blackie and Son, 1859), p.133.


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albeit through the bias of Bunyans puritan theology. His perspective of

the Ranters and Quakers as all talk and no action is out lined by the

character Faithful:

...Heavenly knowledge of these is the Gift of God; no man

attaineth to them by human industry, or only by the talk of

them24

Bunyan bias saw the Ranters and Quakers as offering a cheap and

easy path to salvation with no active adherence to biblical doctrine.25

Talkative wishes to to talk of the history or the mystery of things26, a

preoccupation which was common to the Ranters of Bunyans time

which offended his scriptural literalism. 27 Bunyan criticises the

Quakers by embodying them in the character of Ignorance, who

displays the Quaker attitude towards formal services 28 and church

membership when he tells Christian that I take my pleasure in

walking alone, even more a great deal than in company, unless I like it

the better.29 When Christian asks him how he knows that he has truly

given himself to the pilgrimage, he responds My Heart tells me so30,

when he Ignorance how can be sure of this, he responds My Heart tells

me so.31 This is a direct allusion to the Quaker theology of the inner

light, that Christ could be found in each man32, a theology which

24 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.90.25 Furlong,Puritans Progress , p.59.26 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.89.27 Morton, Pilgrims Progress, p.4.28 Weisner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, p.375.29 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.162.30

Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.162.31 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.163.32 Furlong,Puritans Progress , p.28.


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deeply antagonised Bunyans reliance on the scriptures 33 and the

puritan emphasis on the role of the church congregation. The

appearance of two characters reflects the emergence of the

nonconformist religious groups of the time. The statements and

attitudes of Talkative and Ignorance cannot be taken as an objective

representation of Ranter or Quaker ideology, as their characterisation

is made with Bunyans bias against the Ranters and the Quakers. But

the responses of the puritan archetype character Christian display an

attempt by the puritan Bunyan to other the competing religious

nonconformists of the period, and there by, make an attempt to define

Puritanism as he saw it. When Ignorance makes his statement of

belief, Christian launches into a long treatise outlining the faults in his

Quaker theology and correcting him with arguments clearly based on

Puritan theology:

...Thou believest with a fantastical faith; for this faith is

nowhere described in the Word... Thou believest with a false

faith; because it taketh justification from the personal

righteousness of Christ, and applies it to thy own... This faith

maketh not Christ a justifier of thy person, but of thy actions;

and of thy person for thy actions' sake, which is false...

Therefore, this faith is deceitful, even such as will leave thee

under wrath, in the day of God Almighty; for true justifying faithputs the soul, as sensible of its condition by the law, upon flying

for refuge unto Christ's righteousness...34

Because Bunyan belonged to a generation of sectarian religious

groups35, defining his Puritanism was imperative to set it apart from

33

Morton, Pilgrims Progress, p.4.34 Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress, p.165.35 Furlong,Puritans Progress , p.24.


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the multitude of religious nonconformists of the time. Ironically, the

theological rants of Christian to Ignorance and Talkative can give

historical description of Puritanism as opposed to the various Ranters

of Bunyans period.

The Pilgrims Progress is an allegory of the puritan theology in

17th century England, but it is also an allegory of the puritan life in

17th century England. Bunyan created a guide on how to lead the good

Christian life as he saw it in a narrative and in doing so left a depiction

of the mentality behind Puritanism and the environment in which it

came into being. The trials and tribulations of Christian and his

companions were the trials and tribulations of the Bunyan and his

contemporaries. His narrative gives an insightful, if fantastical look

into the mind of the early modern puritan in a time of wide spread

religious contention.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

PRIMARYSOURCES:

Bunyan, John, The Pilgrims Progress, (New York: Barnes & Noble

Classics, 2005).

Offor, George ed., The Works of John Bunyan: With an Introduction to

Each Treatise, Notes, and a Sketch of His Life, Times, and

Contemporaries By John Bunyan, (Blackie and Son, 1859).

SECONDARYSOURCES:

Adair, John, Puritans: Religion and Politics in Seventeenth Century

England and America, (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1998).

Furlong, Monica, Puritans Progress: A Study of John Bunyan,

(London: Garden City Press Ltd., 1975).

Hill, Christopher, John Bunyan and His Publics, History Today, 38,

no.10, (1988), pp.13-19.

Miller, John and Johnson, Thomas H., The Puritans, (American Book

Company, 1938).

Morton, A.L., Pilgrims Progress, History Workshop Journal, 5, no.1,

(1978), pp.3-8.

Mullett, Michael, John Bunyan in Context, (Keele: Keele University

Press, 1996).


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Watkins, Owen C., The Puritan Experience, (London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul Ltd., 1972).

Weisner-Hanks, Merry E., Cambridge History of Europe: Early Modern

Europe 1450-1789, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

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Historical Insights of the Pilgrims Progress Essay