The Pilgrim's Progress Study Guide
Pilgrim Progress by John Bunyan is one of the most famous religious allegories in the Christian world. Once its popularity was second only to the Bible. The book is written in two parts, the first one was finished in 1678 and it took the author several years to finish the second part in 1684. The book is dedicated to the metaphorical journey of a person throughout their life. The symbolic “pilgrimage” of every person is their way to their own spirituality and meeting God. Even in the present days it is one of the few religious allegories still in print that fascinates not only the historians, but the wide amount of readers all over the world.
The first part of the book was published for the first time during the reign of Charles II. It became a source of major problems for the author and John Bunyan ended up finishing the second part in prison, condemned for violating the Conventicle Act, that prohibited any religious activity and conducting of religious services outside of the bailiwick of the Church of England.
The story of a Christian, going from his native City of Destruction to Celestial City of Heaven is a deeply symbolic journey that can fit into the description of every important moment of human life: from the recovery from trauma to regaining faith. The challenges a Christian meets on his way are Biblical, but still even non-Christians can relate, because they tap into our universal sense of good and evil, moral and ethics. The Demons and Death our pilgrim meets on his way can represent both the real mythological and religious entities, but they also clearly reflect - though metaphorically - the existential questions and fears each one of us meets while searching for our sense of life. In this interpretation, the Celestial City isn’t only the Biblical Heaven. It is also the transcendence, the feeling of the meaning of your own personality and the world, the general enlightenment. This deep, multilayered portrayal of human psychology and spirit is the main reason why this book, written in seventeenth century, is still so popular nowadays. Humanity stays the same, as do the inner issues and questions of every person.
Author: Robert Burns
New Essays
The book begins with "The Author's Apology for his Book. " This portion of the book, written in verse, aims to explain the author's purpose. He wrote the book, he writes, not for the benefit of his neighbors: "I did it mine own self to gratifie" (5). He acknowledges that people had differing...
In Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian appears as the protagonist of the allegory tormented by spiritual anguish. A spiritual guide named Evangelist visits Christian and urges him to leave the City of Destruction. Christian then decides to travel on a strenuous trip to gain salvation in the Celestial...
TITLE: The Pilgrim’s Progress AUTHOR AND © DATE: John Bunyan © 1678 MAIN CHARACTERS (a clear, concise description of each): Christian is the main character, he has a simple personality. He represents just one aspect of the human experience: the search for religious truth. He is his faith (hence...
?Book Assignment: The Pilgrim’s Progress The Pilgrim’s Progress is a bizarre but timeless allegorical tale of young Christian, and later his family, who journeys away from his home to find salvation in the Celestial City. On this journey, our hero seems to endure outwardly physical but internally...