Why Pilgrim’s Progress is Better Than The Sequel: Part The First

A recent medal of honor recipient who had his face blown off by jumping on a grenade before going on to have his face reconstructed, accidentally parachuting into Arlington cemetery, and running a marathon, said that the common core of every human experience is struggle. This element of struggle is particularly lacking in the second part of the Pilgrim’s Progress. While Christian walked through the valley of the shadow of death, his family walked through the same area- in the day, where they could see where they were placing their feet, could avoid traps, and could see any fiends that might otherwise have attempted to assail them. Whereas Christian personally fought Apollyon and was in real mortal peril, his family has a bodyguard fight a lesser demon for them. Whereas Christian had to watch the trial and burning of his fellow pilgrim, his family almost completely ignores vanity fair entirely despite Christian being formerly told that all pilgrims must go through Vanity Fair. Whereas Christian is locked in Doubting Castle and told by Giant Despair to kill himself, the family walks straight into the castle and straight up kills the giant. Obstacles mean less if you do not have to move them. Boulders mean little if you can just walk around them. Removing boulders out of his way to allow his elephants to cross the mountain is a feat for which Hannibal was immortalized. Hiking in the mountains is a relatively easy endeavor by comparison.

While it could be said that there is some value in showing how different Christian pilgrimages to the Celestial City, this is not the same as saying that the second is better than the first. You might say that the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes are better than the gospels because they show that not everyone has as hard of a journey as Christ. This would be a ridiculous statement, because Christ is the ideal of Christianity because He is its source. Christ’s journey to the Celestial City was harder than any Christian, so any journey to the Celestial City that is significantly easier than others is necessarily less honored to the degree that it reflects Christ’s journey to the Celestial City less. This is of course moderated by the lack of perfect knowledge and the bias of pockets of time containing cultures that focus on one set of values to the marginalization of others, but any culture that disconnects the fruit of the Spirit from Christ ceases to be a Christian culture. A culture that values passion rather than self-control, patience, and joy tends to ignore eternal things such as the Celestial City.

The message of the Slough of Despond, Doubting Castle, and Vanity Fair was that “there is no easy way. There are no shortcuts.” The Slough of Despair must be crossed by anyone wishing to reach the Celestial City. Doubting Castle is where you are placed if you try to take a shortcut. Vanity fair is exists explicitly to be a barrier to pilgrims on their way to the Celestial City so that those who wish to avoid it must “go out of the world” to do so.

Whereas the Slough of Despond almost consumes Pilgrim before being dragged out of it, the pilgrims are guided over clearly visible stones in the midst of the slough. The pilgrims ignore any previous rules about leaving the path and attack doubting Castle. Vanity Fair is briefly mentioned, but none of the pilgrims is burned to death as Faithful was. The pilgrims rushing through these areas can be interpreted as life being something that is just passed through to get to the Celestial. However, the lack of death as a prominent force in the second part of Pilgrim’s Progress undercuts its tone. The second half does not have the same sobering effect as Foxe’s book of martyrs.