The Pilgrim's Progress | Plot Summary

The Pilgrim's Progress Overview

In the nineteenth century, The Pilgrim's Progress was a standard volume in nearly every literate household in the United States and England. Most children read it along with the Bible and the great plays of Shakespeare. In the twentieth century, its popularity has declined, mainly because of changes in contemporary views of religion. The Pilgrim's Progress stands, for better or worse, as one of the monuments of Puritanism, a part of our historical past rather than an active influence in our present.

Nevertheless, The Pilgrim's Progress has a good deal to offer the modem reader, both in religious instruction and enjoyment. John Bunyan's religious background may have been Puritan, but the doctrine that is at the heart of The Pilgrim's Progress comes directly from the New Testament's Sermon on the Mount where Christ exhorts his followers to seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" and to...
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