Pilgrims Progress
John Bunyan- went to jail because
he was a Baptist ~ People who refused to worship in the Anglican church
were called "non-conformists".
-Considered act of treason against state to be a member of
church
who was not the national church. Must belong to Anglican Church to be a
good citizen. It was the "established" church.
-
Those who favored a state church were establishmentarians.
-
Those who opposed the state church (like Bunyan) were
disestablishmentarians.
-
Thus those who opposed people like Bunyan were antidisestablishmentarians,
giving us everybody's favorite long word. These word came along
later,
but the conflict arose during this period.
-Puritans wanted to purify Anglican Church
-Separatists formed separate churches. Novel ideas to separate
church
and state.
-When the Puritans came to power, they had closed the Anglican
churches,
and killed Charles I, a Catholic.
-When Charles II returned to power in 1660, the Anglican church
again
became the establised church. Some diversity was allowed, but
well-known
nonconformists like Bunyan were jailed as examples.
Bunyan was not well educated. The Bible was his only textbook.
Thus the major influence on Bunyan in his writing is the
Judeo-Christian
tradition.
-Pilgrims Progress is an allegory. Christian allegories
date
back to the fourth century a.d., when Boethius wrote The
Consolation
of Philosophy.
-Allegory ~ is the reading of documents on several levels.
It was used by church in middle ages, and still is popular.
Allegory
was Invented by Greeks because their gods' immorality was embarrassing.
(Example - Zeus sometimes turned himself into an animal and raped
women.
Allegorical interpretations of these myths thus arose). Allegory
was later adopted by Christians.
The medieval church expressed its understanding of allegory in
the following
distich:
-
Littera gesta docet;
-
quod credas allegoria;
-
quid agas moralia;
-
quo tendas anagogia.
Translation:
-
The letter teaches the events;
-
what you believe is allegory;
-
what you are should do is the moral
(tropological)
sense;
-
where you are going (after you die) is anagogical.
The verse that the church used to justify this method of
interpretation
is 2 Corinthians 3:6:
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not
of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the
spirit
giveth life.
The early church took this to mean that interpretation of the Bible
should be symbolic as well as literal. "By
dismissing the spiritual sense as a pious fantasy, modern critics have
missed the profundity of this verse, and hence of the tradition of
spiritual
exegesis. This medieval distich expresses what the Church has always
believed
about the Bible.
-
The Bible records God's action in history
(the
letter), and it is the task of the interpreter to discern the relation
between what is written there and what has come about (and will come
about)
because of what happened.
-
The three latter senses show how this is
best
done, by relating the text to what we believe (allegory),
-
to how we are to live (the moral sense),
-
and to what we hope for (the anagogical
sense)."
(Interpreting
the
Bible: Three Views)
Jerusalem in the four-fold allegorical senses:
-
Jerusalem, e.g., according to its literal sense, is the Holy
City;
-
taken allegorically, it denotes the Church Militant;
-
understood tropologically, it stands for the just soul;
-
finally, in its anagogical sense, it stands for the Church
Triumphant.
In Pilgrims Progress:
-
Literal - journey from the City of Destruction to Celestial City
despite
great perils.
-
Allegorical - the progress of any Christian from Baptism through
trials
to heaven.
-
Moral - courage, trust, effort ~ to have these there
characteristics.
-
Anagogic - God’s providence and care for us. Worthiness of goal
- to
get to city.
[13]
- Christian’s burden that he carries on his back is sin; carrying
a Bible-life’s guidebook.
-He’s crying because he is going to hell. Realizes his sin and
feels
guilty.
-His family thinks he is crazy.
[14]
-Evangelist comes to see him. He’s preaching the euangelion -
the
"good news" or gospel.
-Bunyan uses the personification of attributes (wisdom, hope).
Little
character development in the story.
[61]
-Apollyon ~ personification of Greek figure of
destruction.
Christian is leaving his city. They fight for a long time. Line 240 and
245, Quotes scriptures, which cause Apollyon to flee.
[92]
-Vanity Fair ~ place where you can buy anything you
want.
Jesus was only 1 who didn’t purchase anything
[93]
[94-95]
[119]
Diffidence tells him to beat them. When he finds them alive,
she
tells him to tell them to kill themselves. But they bear their
suffering.
[121]
Hopeful tells Christian they must persevere. Christian
has
key of promise in his heart (because he's, well, hopeful).
Promises
from bible.
[158]
[161]
-Leave mortal clothes and body behind when you cross the
river.
You die.
[166]