It was written in prison. It has never been out of print since its first publication in 1678. Charles Spurgeon said he had read it over 100 times. It has sold over 250 million copies and been translated into 200 languages. It has come out in more than 1300 editions. Those facts alone make it one of the most remarkable books ever written.
The Pilgrim’s Progress takes the Bible’s most used metaphor for the Christian life – a walk, or journey, or way – (the second most used is that of war and battle) and turns it into an extended allegory. The characters are familiar biblical themes without being clichés, the adventures are known scriptural lessons without being tiresome, and the dialogue is theologically instructive without being pedantic.
Saturated with Scripture, Bunyan describes the Christian life from initial repentance till reaching Heaven. He artfully reveals the distractions of the human heart, our sinful tendencies, and our self-told deceptions that can ruin what appeared to be faith.
Bunyan’s vision of the Christian life is unmistakably Puritan: severe self-examination, perseverance to the end, suspicion and hostility to the world, the ubiquity of false professors and false teachers, and the need to continually fight for one’s faith. Bunyan clearly believed that final salvation is revealed through the fruit of a faith that endures.
For all its strict view of perseverance, Bunyan manages to pastorally describe meditation on the Word, trusting in God’s promises, the power of prayer, fleeing temptation, living by grace, maintaining spiritual disciplines and ultimately leaning on the sustaining grace of God that is the ground and cause of it all. Seldom has someone written a book with so much imagination that could have been alternatively titled “A Parable of True Faith”.
Christians who have not read The Pilgrim’s Progress have not experienced one of God’s best gifts to His church. Heaven may reveal how God used this little book to sustain many a pilgrim to the very end.