The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious, theological fiction in English literature. It has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print.

1. The Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyan
City of Destruction Celestial CityChristian

2. A religious
allegory. (A Symbolic Fictional
Narrative that Conveys a Meaning )
First part
in 1678
Second part
in 1684

3. Without doubt the most famous Christian allegory, still in print, The Pilgrim’s
Progress was first published in the reign of Charles II and was completed while
its author was imprisoned for offences against the Conventicle Act (which
prohibited the conducting of religious services outside the bailiwick of
the Church of England).
• Conventicle: unofficial religious meeting.
• The Conventicle Act,1664 forbade conventicles of five or more people,
other than an immediate family, meeting in religious assembly outside the
auspices of the Church of England. This law aimed to discourage non-
conformism and to strengthen the position of the Established Church.

4. What is the book about?
The book recounts a dream of the trials
and adventures of Christian (an
Everyman figure, born with the name
Graceless) as he flees his home, the City
of Destruction, for the Celestial City.
Everyman: an ordinary/typical
individual

5. Part I: Author’s Apology, the First Stage,
and the Second Stage
• In his Apology (more like a defense), Bunyan affirms his aim to strengthen
religious belief through fiction.
• He attacks the popular misconception that religion and fiction are
enemies, asserting that the Bible contains many fictional parables
(simple stories used to illustrate a moral lesson, as told by Jesus Christ).
• Bunyan also states that he wrote his work mainly for himself, to further his
own spiritual development.

6. • Beginning the allegory, the narrator tells of
his wandering through the wild-land,
entering a den to sleep.
• He dreams that he sees a
man holding a book and crying!

7. The man, named
Christian, is visited by
Evangelist, a spiritual
guide who tells him he
must leave his
hometown,
the City of Destruction,
with a heavy burden on
his back.
Evangelist – preacher, gospellar, converter
[a person who seeks to convert others to the Christian faith]

8. Christian tries to
convince his family to
come with him, but they
think he is mentally
unwell.
Alone and sad, Christian
leaves home.

9. Christian tries to convince his neighbors
Obstinate and Pliable to accompany him.
• Obstinate refuses, but Pliable agrees, though he is soon discouraged when he
and Christian fall into a muddy
pit called the Slough of Despond. [swamp of despair]
Obstinate – stubborn, inflexible,
Pliable – flexible, easily influenced.
Slough – swamp
Despond – a state of depression

10. Christian sinks because of
the burden on his back.

11. Pliable gets out
of the muck
and turns
back home

12. A man named Help
pulls Christian out.
This is also symbolic
because God wants
Christian to reach the
celestial city which is
why he sends “HELP”
to help Christian out

13. Symbols explained!
This burden, also referred to as his sack/pack, is something that neither he
nor anyone else can remove, and it stays with him until he comes to the
cross.
Christian's (and Bunyan's) sense of the burden is deeper.
They're concerned with the original sin that everyone besides Christ has carried
since Eve and Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is for this
reason that only Christian's coming to the cross allows the burden to fall.

14. Meeting with
Worldly Wiseman!
Christian is a vulnerable target here, because first that he is
alone. Christian was walking "solitary by himself." He did not
have the wise Evangelist at his side, nor the comfort and
counsel of another Pilgrim. He did not even have Pliable in his
company. For now, the enemy, Worldly Wiseman, finds
opportunity while he is walking alone. Moreover, the meeting
between Christian and Mr. Worldly Wiseman was unavoidable.
They were crossing the way of each other—traveling in
opposite directions. Christian's face was towards Eternal Life,
the other's was set towards the world. Mr. Worldly Wiseman
dwelt in the town of Carnal Policy. He was fleshly minded and
thus hostile to God.
Satan can take a lie and enfold it with enough truth to cover,
soften and hide it, just to set a deadly trap. If we fail to see
error because it's adorned in truthful wrapping, we swallow it
to our hurt, just as Christian was swayed with Worldly
Wiseman's counsel and, as we shall see, ends up straying out
the Way into a perilous place.

15. Later on, Evangelist returns and rebukes Christian for listening to Worldly
Wiseman.
Worldly Wiseman: His real advice
is from the world and not from
God, meaning his advice is flawed
and consists of three objectives:
getting Christian off the right
path, making the cross of Jesus
Christ offensive to him, and
binding him to the Law so he
would die with his sins!

16. Evangelist bids Christian farewell
and then Christian resumes his journey.
• He comes upon a Wicket Gate and
reads a sign hung above it that says to
knock. A serious-looking attendant
named Goodwill appears.
• Goodwill asks where Christian is
heading, and Christian tells him he is on
his way to Mount Zion, (the Celestial
City) to be saved from the wrath soon
to be unleashed on the City of
Destruction.
Mount Zion is a hill in Jerusalem
(Jerusalem's Western Hill)

17. Christian enters the Wicket Gate,
opened by Goodwill. Engraving from a
1778 edition printed in England.
Goodwill is the keeper of the Wicket
Gate through which one enters the
"straight and narrow way" to the
Celestial City.
Wicket Gate is a small pedestrian door.

18. • Goodwill opens the door and pulls Christian
in, explaining that he is saving his guest from
Beelzebub’s arrows shot from a nearby
castle.
Beelzebub, (Lord of the Flies) is one of Satan's
companion arch-demons, who has built a fort
near the Wicket Gate from which he and his
soldiers can shoot arrows of fire at those about to
enter the Wicket Gate so they will never enter it.
He is also the Lord, God, King, Master, and Prince
of Vanity Fair.

19. • With Christian safe inside, Goodwill requests an account of
his journey so far.
• Before agreeing, Christian asks whether he can first set down
his burden.
• Goodwill says no, explaining that it must be carried and will
drop off naturally when no longer needed.
• Christian reports his progress so far.
• Satisfied, Goodwill then sends Christian to a nearby house
where the Interpreter lives, saying that the Interpreter may
show Christian many helpful things.

20. • The Interpreter: the one who has
his House along the way as a rest
stop for travelers to check in to
see pictures and dioramas
(miniature models) to teach them
the right way to live the Christian
life.

21. • The House of the Interpreter is sort of like school for Christian.
"The Interpreter" who lives there takes him from room to room,
showing the new pilgrim images representing Christian principles.
• You can almost imagine Bunyan saying the same thing to you as a
reader. Like the allegories of the novel, the allegories of the
Interpreter are active.
• In other words, rather than static or ambiguous symbols of
"innocence" or "wisdom," they represent complex states of being.

22. This is particularly poignant and meaningful in the case of the caged
man, who tells Christian:
"I am what I was not once… I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in
this iron cage. I cannot get out, O now I cannot."

23. • Next Christian enters a large, dusty parlor where the Interpreter orders a
man to sweep.
• Then at the Interpreter’s command, a woman comes in and sprinkles water
on the floor, cleaning it further.
• Christian asks what this means, and the Interpreters explains that the man’s
sweeping is the law of the Old Testament, while the woman’s washing is the
gospel of the New Testament. Both are necessary parts of faith.
Old Testament: the first part of the Christian
Bible, comprising thirty-nine books (mostly
written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic)
New Testament: the second part of the Christian
Bible canon (has four narratives of the life,
teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus called
"gospel" ) [contains 27 books]

24. Christian enters another room where a fire burns against a wall. A man pours water
onto the fire, but the fire only burns higher and hotter.
Christian is puzzled until he sees another man on the other side
of the wall pouring oil to rouse the flames.
The Interpreter tells Christian that the water-pourer is the devil, who tries to put out
the fire of faith, while the oil-pourer is Christ, who nurtures it.
Another man standing at a doorway, prepares to fight a crowd inside the room. He
puts on a helmet, grabs a weapon, and gets involved in fighting.
Though he appears to be failing, the man wins in the end. Christian then
understands that this is the valor a true pilgrim must show.

25. Things to remember!
• The opening also portrays the most central idea of the work: the journey. The
Pilgrim’s Progress is about travel and the meaning that one man’s travel
comes to acquire. The trip is one of discovery and learning new things.
• Pilgrim
Devotee
Traveller
Believer
Worshipper
Wayfarer

26. • The geographical wandering across the land is actually a spiritual
development.
• The journey to the Celestial City is a solitary experience.
• Christian’s solitude is a necessary aspect of his own faith, which
holds that salvation comes not through church attendance and
group ritual but through private prayer and introspection.
• Bunyan shows the reader that faith is individual, so Christian
must be alone to practice it!

27. Solitude reveals a dark side in Christian.
• One disturbing aspect is, Christian leaves his family and other relatives
behind and is shown quite indifference to their fates!
• He journeys alone and is never shown thinking about them [until he
reaches the House Beautiful].
• Salvation matters more to him than worldly relationships, but his total
lack of family feeling casts a shadow over his personality to many
modern readers!
• Christian may be so intent on spiritual improvement that his personal
relationships suffer as a result.

28. Another thing is………..
• The haunting sight of a despairing man in an iron cage is drawn on
Bunyan’s own experiences in prison.
• Undoubtedly, Bunyan’s time in jail was marked by agony, despair and
hopelessness. However by sending Christian on his journey, Bunyan shows
that he is freer than the caged man.
• In his imagination and spirit he can create a character that progresses,
even if his body is behind bars.