“Till we reach the golden strand” Frontispiece and title page oF the third edition oF The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John bunyan, printed at london, 1679. courtesy oF the beinecke rare book & Manuscript library, yale university.
Pilgrim’s Progress gave many generations of Christians a way to understand their journey to heaven Edwin Woodruff Tait Now I saw in my dream, that these two men went in at the gate; and lo, as they entered, they were transfigured; and they had raiment put on that shone like gold. There were also [those] that met them with harps and crowns, and gave them to them; the harps to praise withal, and the crowns in token of honor. Then I heard in my dream, that all the bells in the city rang again for joy, and that it was said unto them, “Enter ye into the joy of your Lord.” —John Bunyan John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), perhaps the most popular book next to the Bible for generations of evangelical Protestants, told of the Christian life as a pilgrimage “from this world to that which is to come.” Such an idea of pilgrimage had dominated the medieval worldview, where the distinction between this world and the life to come was expressed by the terms in via (on the way) and in patria (in the homeland). The metaphor was powerful both because medieval Christians spent a lot of time traveling on foot and because one important form of travel was a literal pilgrimage to a holy place. Jerusalem was the ultimate goal of pilgrimage and an earthly image of heaven. In fact even the Crusades were seen originally as an “armed pilgrimage” to Jerusalem. Bunyan’s allegory, though, became the definitive form such imagery took in the evangelical mind— accessible in no small part due to his creative simplicity of language. The pilgrims in his tale are named with their most identifiable traits: Christian, Ignorance, Hopeful, Giant Despair, Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Pilgrim’s Progress is not significant for detailed descriptions of heaven (they don’t occur), but for the way the entire story is suffused with the hope of heaven. The “Celestial City” is spoken of over and over on the difficult journey, but not seen until the end, when “shining ones” escort the pilgrims over the river and into paradise. After the joy in heaven that welcomes the pilgrims’ arrival, part
Issue 112
“my lord, I’m on my journey” Believers for centuries framed their experience of the Christian life in images drawn from Bunyan’s “similitude of a dream.” 1 of the book ends with hapless traveler Ignorance coming to the gate of the city lacking a “certificate” and being hauled off to a door in the hill leading to hell. Part 2, describing the pilgrimage of Christian’s family, says even less about what happened after they “crossed the river.” Rather, the focus lies on their reactions to the crossing. But this description of death as a voyage across a river and the moving portrayal of the pilgrims’ experiences in crossing shaped the ways evangelicals sang, prayed, and talked for centuries. While the idea of crossing the Jordan went back much further, Bunyan’s vivid word pictures crept into common speech and into
31