The best allegory ever written is rewritten in modern English, making it clearer and more forceful to the modern reader.
With more than 100,000 in print, this retelling by James H. Thomas follows Christian as he leaves his home in the City of Destruction and begins a long journey to the Celestial City. His adventure is full of encounters with interesting people, such as Faithful, Hopeful, and Ignorance. Traveling through places such as Vanity Fair and the Valley of the Shadow of Death, he reaches his heavenly home but learns rich lessons during the journey. The story has immediate application to everyday life. Later on, Christian's wife, Christiana, decides to join her husband in the Celestial City. As she travels, Christiana comes upon a different set of people, such Greatheart, Mercy, Honesty. Her story illustrates how Christians follow different paths but with the same destination: eternity with Jesus.
The story itself is presented as a dream sequence of an unnamed narrator. Our narrator describes what he recalls seeing from the life of Christian, a small town guy who is disturbed by what he reads in a prophetical book (aka The Bible). He discusses his fears with his family, insisting that they must leave town before the arrival of end times. Christian's wife, Christiana, is greatly disturbed by her husband's ranting, fearing he has lost his mind. She urges him to "sleep it off" and see how he feels in the morning. Morning comes and his mind isn't any more comforted. His neighbors, Obstinate and Pliable, also show concern over his mental state. Christian makes the decision to abandon his family and set off to find The Celestial City, encouraging his neighbors to join him (since his family won't) --- a metaphor for Christians bringing people to their faith.
Within the Celestial City, pain is a thing of the past, everyone is safe and happy, everything is bliss and light. But Christian quickly finds that it is not a straight shot to his destination. He has quite the swervy, arduous path ahead of him. Along the way he is joined by some unique characters --- character traits literally personified into human form --- folks like Talkative, Hopeful, Faithful, Ignorance, and the Worldly Wiseman.
Faithful: "I found that Shame was a bold and persistent villain. He was not to be easily shaken off. He continued to follow me, whispering in my ear at times about my insincerity, my blunders, and all the imperfections of pilgrims. But at last I told him that he might as well shut up, that he himself was a hypocrite, that I gloried in my infirmities, and that all his talk was in vain."
He'll also travel through the Valley of the Shadow of Death where he'll meet monsters such as Giant Despair (gamers, think: level boss). There will be times where evil will initially present itself as good (and vice versa) and Christian will face various temptations and tests of faith.
Arriving at The Celestial City
Part 2 of The Pilgrim's Progress follows up with Christiana, after she comes to see that maybe there was something to her husband's concerns. His convictions have her rethinking her own faith journey.
As I mentioned earlier, I read this quite a few years ago and I remember being much more impressed with it on that first reading. While certainly still a worthwhile read, this time around the metaphors stand out a little less, the overall tone a little more fire & brimstone than I remember (at least some scenes). But while the metaphors / allegory elements might not have popped as much for me this time around, my mind did still note the powerful imagery, scenes such as Christian struggling in the Valley of Humility, or the moments where he is beaten nearly to death --- more than once! --- for his religious beliefs, his surviving these attacks, regaining just enough strength to push through the Valley of Death. While I admired his ability to survive, the character himself, as a whole, was not entirely likeable. In fact, I often found him very judgmental and dismissive of those who maybe did not believe exactly as he did. Unfairly, he's quick to call them fools. A couple such characters he breezily scoffed at were actually personalities I quite liked: Crafty, moving through life with a lighthearted step "waiting for wind & tide", and Earthy, who likes to remind, "God expects us to use wisdom."
Thomas's choice of wording, while still sticking closely to Bunyan's original text, is nicely updated.... and after now trying out a few different "adaptation" editions (from various authors) of Bunyan's work, I see that a number of these authors seem to lean on Thomas's framing and turn of phrase.
Reading The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan can be a bit challenging even for the best of readers. Not so with this new, easy-to-read version that translates the original archaic language into simple conversational English allowing readers of all ages to easily navigate the most popular Christian allegory of all time.
The story chronicles the epic adventure of a man named Christian who leaves his home in the City of Destruction and begins a life-long quest to the Celestial City. Set against the backdrop of a hazardous journey, this powerful drama unfolds as Christian’s adventures lead him into fascinating lands and encounters with interesting people who either help or hinder his progress along a narrow way. With a gallery of memorable characters and visits to colorful places, Bunyan’s allegorical narrative describes one man's extraordinary adventure on his journey to faith.
Without losing any faithfulness to the original text, now you can read Bunyan’s timeless classic and reimagine this famous quest that has challenged and encouraged believers for centuries.
The book includes the original Bible references and a Bible study guide is available separately for individual and small group use.
★★★1/2
In his foreword, Alan Vermilye writes that this book is the result of one and a half years spent studying Bunyan's orginal work, trying to get it into a fresher, more accessible format for the modern reader. The original gist of the story remains unchanged for the most part (more on that later), but the presentation is offered in a way that more closely resembles modern day conversational English.
As I settled into the reading of this work, my mind buzzed with "this sounds awfully familiar," and not just in a oh-he's-rewording-Bunyan way. I pulled down my paperback copy of the James Thomas adaptation and sure enough, several passages from Vermilye's text--- at least in the early part of the book --- read almost identical to Thomas' 1964 work (see comparison photos below).
It's not a direct copy though. Words / sections have been altered to make them even more updated from Thomas' version. A couple examples:
* The line where Christian says "I seek an inheritance incorruptible." Vermilye has changed that to "I'm searching for a joy that does not fade."
* The scene at the Interpreter's House where Hopeless says "I ceased to watch and be sober." Vermilye's text has him saying, "I neglected to watch and be on guard."
There were also a few minor changes to character names. A couple I caught were Timorous being changed to Nervousness and Giant Despair's wife's name changed from Gloom to Diffidence.
I will say the work Vermilye did on the text overall did end up giving the narrative a much smoother flow, as he ended up cutting back much of the more heavy-handed verbiage Thomas decided to go with. Vermilye's word choices lend much more to clear-cut explanations and visuals. So as far as making this more appealing and accessible to a larger audience, maybe even those new to the faith, mission accomplished! Vermilye also went back in and paid respect to the sections of Bunyan poetry that were cut out entirely from the Thomas edition for some reason.
The one big bummer I found at the end was that Vermilye stops at the end of Christian's story, completely cutting out Part 2 where Christiana goes on a journey of her own to try to be reunited with her husband in their new shared faith. I actually quite liked this part of The Pilgrim's Progress (though Christiana's story is considerably shorter) and was a little disappointed to see that it had been edited out in this adaptation. BUT! Vermilye does offer a handy study guide to go along with the reading of this book, so it's possible that Christiana's story was cut simply in the interest of having a more straightforward study program.
Speaking of the study program booklet, it's 84 pages and is set up to guide readers through a twelve week program, ideally spending at least an hour with each section. The study guide opens with a brief author bio on John Bunyan and the history of The Pilgrim's Progress (it was interesting to read that this 17th century book has never been out of print and is second only to The Bible for number of copies sold in that time). The guide then goes on to break down characters, settings, and plot points into quick & easy summaries before getting into the discussion questions for each section. The questions themselves largely center in on examples of Scripture and metaphors used. The questions are posed in such a way as to inspire discussion on deeper meanings readers are meant to pull from the many inspiring scenes of The Pilgrim's Progress. For trivia fans, Vermilye also slips in some games into the question sections, often asking readers to match imagery / concepts / character traits to the Scripture passages they are meant to illustrate.
*FTC DISCLAIMER: Alan Vermilye kindly provided me with complimentary copies of the book and study guide in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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