The Pedagogical Impulse in The Pilgrim's Progress
                                
     by Deborah McCollister, Associate Professor of English
                    Dallas Baptist University


     The Gospel of Matthew concludes with Jesus' commandment to
his disciples: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the World" (Matthew 28: 19-20).  The centrality of teaching in
the role of the infant Church is obvious in these last words, and
historically, most churches have recognized the significant
responsibility of teaching.
     Moreover, in his work On Christian Doctrine, Augustine
recognized that the "expositor and teacher of the Divine
Scripture" needed to strive to turn mere hearers into learners:
       If those who hear are to be taught, exposition must be
       composed, if it is needed, that they may become
       acquainted with the subject at hand.  In order that those
       things which are doubtful may be made certain, they must
       be reasoned out with the use of evidence.  But if those
       who hear are to be moved rather than taught, so that they
       may fully accept those things which they acknowledge to
       be true, there is need for greater powers of speaking.
       Here entreaties and reproofs, exhortations and rebukes,
       and whatever devices are necessary to move minds must be
       used (121).
     John Bunyan's desire to teach motivated him in those
vocations for which he is better known, preaching and writing.
And although he probably never read Augustine, his detailed
attention to ensuring that hearers were taught is evident in The
Pilgrim's Progress.  As did Augustine, he sought to teach by
appealing to the head ("reason[ing] out with the use of
evidence") and the heart (moving people).  In fact, in the
Apology he concludes by inviting the reader to "come hither,/ And
lay my Book, thy Head and Heart together."  My purpose here is to
examine the background and the philosophical bedrock for his
pedagogy as well as some of the specific instructional methods
that are evident in the first book of The Pilgrim's Progress.
     If one were to conduct a poll of teachers to determine what
inspired them to choose the profession, most responses would
include some mention of role models in the field.  However, such
would not be the case with John Bunyan.  To begin with, his
schooling was quite brief.  He wrote in his autobiography, Grace
Abounding, that "it pleased God" to put it into his parents'
hearts "to put me to school, to learn both to read and write"
(5).  We know little else about his schooling except that
according to his testimony, he soon lost "that little I learned."
In her biography of Bunyan, Olga Winslow surmises: "It was
probably poor enough, for at that date village schoolmasters were
often incompetent in their teaching and unscrupulous in their
discipline, making it so severe as hardly to instill a desire to
learn, much less a love of learning for its own sake" (13).
     Yet, despite the poor schooling he received, Bunyan did
learn to read, sharpening his reading skills on the book that was
making its way into even the poorest homes at that time, the King
James Bible.  William Nelson has pointed out that this new
version of the Bible, with "its poetry and sound and stalwart
English did more to influence English speech than any other
book."  The language of the Bible filled the Puritans' everyday
speech and gave them rich metaphors for description (148-49).
The narratives which record Jesus' teachings may have served as
models for Bunyan in his own preaching and teaching, especially
since he had no other legitimate model teacher.  Moreover, Bunyan
probably read some of the popular chivalric romances during his
boyhood; in any event, his chief instruction was derived from his
independent reading and little formal schooling.1
     Some of the methods of pedagogy in Bunyan's book can be
found in sermons of that day.  Manuals for Puritan preachers of
the seventeenth century advocated following a model close to that
of the Elizabethan preacher, William Perkins:
     1.  To reade the Text distinctly out of the Canonicall
Scriptures.
     2.  To give the sense and understanding of its being read,
by the Scripture it selfe.
     3.  To collect a few and profitable points of doctrine out
of the naturall sense.
     4.  To apply (if we have the gift) the doctrines rightly
collected, to the life and manner of men, in a    simple and
plaine speech.  (qtd. in Batson 104)

Beatrice Batson, in analyzing Bunyan's sermons, says that their
structures reveal an awareness of various seventeenth-century
models, but that he did not restrict himself.  Instead, he chose
a wide range of patterns for structure (149).  The sermon he
preached most often, Beginning at Jerusalem, contains
enumerations of points, parallel comparisons, scriptural
references, and dramatizations, much as The Pilgrim's Progress
does.
     Similarly, much of Bunyan's success as a teacher through The
Pilgrim's Progress stems from his unique combination of form and
imagination.  Augustine's method of teaching through an ordered
structure had affected education for one thousand years, from his
time to that of the Renaissance, when Christian humanism
flourished (Batson 102).  Form was, of course, an essential
ingredient for almost all seventeenth-century writers, but John
Bunyan may have recognized its importance because of the Judeo-
Christian belief that the omnipotent Creator is a God of order
and control.  Consequently, the imagination of Bunyan the creator
complemented the forms in which he told his story.  As Batson
notes: "A study of John Bunyan's imaginative works clearly
indicates that his obvious preoccupation with moral and
theological teaching does not erase his concern for literary art.
His writings show his interest in structure, generic form, and
other features of imaginative literature" (148).
     Ironically but fortunately, the tremendous zeal John Bunyan
possessed--combined with his creative vigor--burst forth when he
was confined to a stifling prison.  During one of his
imprisonments in Bedford Gaol, he began his tale about Christian;
the boredom of prison may have been precisely what goaded him
into applying his energies to the pen.  Since he was not a man of
letters, he did not write a "perfect" allegory, but one with a
rich mixture of genres and forms, employing realism and local
speech that caused his character types to become individuals as
well.  The finished product became what critics have called "a
hybrid of religious allegory, the early novel, the moral
dialogue, the romance, the folk story, the picaresque novel, the
epic, the dream-vision, and the fairy tale" (Sadler 54).  The
ultimate result of John Bunyan's combination of form and
imagination was a better teaching device for his own purposes.
If he had relied only on romance and imagination, the Puritan
readers of his day would have rejected his work, and it would not
have been the inspirational guide for common people of his
century.  If he had relied only on form, the generations of
readers who followed would not have read his work--for how many
people, even well-read ones, have perused the sermon treatises
that flourished in his day?
     Like all good teachers, Bunyan was prepared to reckon with
the needs and expectations of his audience.  James Forrest notes:
"An intense awareness of the reader and the need to stimulate his
mind adequately underlie the artistic procedure of all Bunyan's
imaginative works" (106).  Simultaneously, Bunyan was troubled by
"the problem of `words in general,' by the intractability of
language as an instrument for even the simplest kinds of
communicating, let alone for truth telling," an anxiety shared by
most of the radicals who were writing in his day (Luxon 259-60).
     Indeed, in The Pilgrim's Progress, both the Apology and the
Conclusion reveal that Bunyan was  preoccupied with justifying
his use of figurative language to his readers.  On occasion, he
speaks directly to the reader, using the second person, as in the
following: "Now here Christian was worse put to it then in his
fight with Apollyon, as by the sequel you shall see" (50).  In
essence, he ensures that the audience is participating with him
on the pilgrimage when he says: "For you must note, that tho the
first part of the Valley of the Shadow of Death was dangerous,
yet this second part was, if possible, far more dangerous" (53).
Stanley Fish has observed: "The narrator, then, is not our guide,
but our fellow.  The events of his dream happen to him just as
they happen to us and to Christian" (292).  Moreover, Bunyan--
behind the voice of the narrator--is also conscious of the fact
that his audience, the learners, must not walk alone; rather, he
must acknowledge their presence and walk with them in what John
Knott calls "a pattern explaining and assuring the deliverance of
the faithful of all times" (461).
     Bunyan apparently recognized that his Puritan audience would
learn best if he included in his pedagogy a variety of methods
that would sharpen the memory, enhancing the vehicle of the
allegory itself.  Puritans emphasized memory work as an
obligation so that they would not forget scriptures, Christ
Himself, and their own past experiences; they also utilized
memorization so that they could more effectively evangelize
others.  Lynn Veach Sadler sees the humorous passage in which
"Christian recalls the key of Promise and the frequent
misadventures resulting from failure to remember the `note of the
way' or the warning against the flatterer" as evidence of the
Puritans' preoccupation with memory (63).  Stanley Fish goes so
far as to say: "Every crisis in The Pilgrim's Progress is a
crisis of memory" (282).
     Clearly then, John Bunyan had informally and thoroughly (if
unconsciously) developed a theory of education.  I have noted
that Bunyan's work combines form and imagination.  Fittingly, the
most noticeable pedagogical techniques fall roughly into two
major categories: those that follow a set form, appealing mostly
to the head; and those that are quite imaginative, appealing
mostly to the heart.
     As mentioned earlier, form was deemed essential in the
seventeenth century; the practice of listing and outlining,
common to preachers of that era, made its way into The Pilgrim's
Progress.  Furthermore, in an attempt to sharpen the conscience,
Puritan children were expected to perform the routine of counting
their sins by the day and pleading for forgiveness before going
to sleep every night (Winslow 21).  Bunyan uses enumerated lists
for several purposes.  For example, when Christian hears a voice
repeating a verse from the Twenty-third Psalm, three reasons for
his gladness are listed.  In fact, when a list is composed of
reasons, there are most often three.  The reasons in this passage
are:
          First, because he gathered from thence, that some who
feared God were in this Valley as well as himself.
          Secondly, For that he perceived, God was with them,
though in that dark and dismal state . . .
          Thirdly, For that he hoped . . . to have company by and
by.  (53)

The above list of reasons and a few others in the tale seem a bit
ridiculous because the deductions are much too obvious.  Other
outlines, however, offer much more help to the learner/reader.
     When Christian and Faithful enter Vanity Fair, the crowd
stares at and surrounds them.  The list of reasons for the
crowd's response functions as a necessary explanation that also
compares the pilgrims with the inhabitants of Vanity Fair in four
different categories: dress, speech, materialism, and purpose
(74).  When Evangelist exhorts Christian to hate the ways of Mr.
Worldly Wiseman, he lists the reasons in brief enumerated
sentences.  Directly below, he explains each sentence, in
respective order, in a full paragraph.  Likewise, Faithful's
defense of himself at Vanity Fair is quite clear because his
first, second, and third arguments (again enumerated) answer
point by point the charges of Mr. Envy, Mr. Superstition, and Mr.
Pickthank (78).  Bunyan uses lists in Hopeful's testimony to
Christian about his conversion to cause the reader to weigh the
advantages and disadvantages of converting: Hopeful gives four
reasons that he resisted the "light" and eight emotional reasons
for deciding to repent (113).  Lists and outlines abound in The
Pilgrim's Progress; the above are only a few representative
samples.
     Another method Bunyan uses in his appeal to the logical
nature of learners is that of posing a problem, then exploring
alternative solutions.  When Mistrust and Timorous frighten
Christian with tales of the dangers facing him, he considers
where he should flee to be safe--back to the City of Destruction
or forward towards uncertain dangers (36).  His decision to go
forward reveals the use of logic more than faith.  When he
encounters a similar dilemma because the Fiends are confronting
him, he again considers the possible alternatives; the solution
comes, however, not because of his logic this time, but because
of his faith.  He cannot safely choose any of the options, so he
cries out, "I will walk in the strength of the Lord God," and the
Fiends cease their approach (52).  Stanley Fish comments:
"Christian is released (or releases himself) from his impasse
when he reaches a decision that has nothing to do with the
rational process that has preceded it.  His action is not taken
because of his analysis of the situation, but in spite of it"
(276).
     Most of the pairs of questions and answers Bunyan utilizes
seem somewhat artificial because the answers always come so
readily and easily.  Yet they do have their pedagogical purposes.
Sometimes this method is used to summarize in brief what has
happened in the story to that point.  When Christian questions
Faithful in their first conversation, the reader receives a new
subplot--the story of Faithful's pilgrimage preceding that point
in the main narrative (55-61) and still another way of viewing
the Christian journey.  Early in the narrative, Christian is
asked repeatedly how and why he left his family and home.  The
repetition of questions from many characters and the same set of
answers from Christian becomes rather tiring.  Yet in the context
of the Puritan emphasis on memory, they reveal Bunyan's steadfast
desire to teach "the head."  The method of religious
catechization that abounds to this day probably speaks to its
effectiveness.  Still another purpose of the question-and-answer
method is to prepare the reader for obstacles he or she might
encounter.  When Atheist ridicules Christian (110-11), Bunyan in
effect utilizes a role play, demonstrating how to respond to
opposition.
     The marginalia Bunyan includes serve many purposes, and all
of them fortify his teaching.  Obviously, he lists items in the
margins in order to keep them from intruding into the main text.
The scriptural cross-references encourage further and deeper
study and provide documentation for the main text.  In addition,
the marginalia serve as running summaries or explanations.
Finally, they provide commentary on what is taking place in the
plot.  For example, next to one of the addresses of Ignorance,
the marginal comment reads: "He saith to every one, that he is a
fool" (101).
     A final form that Bunyan uses primarily to appeal to the
head is that of comparison.  Christian falls into Mr. Worldly
Wiseman's trap because he sees him as a gentleman (17), but
Evangelist sees the same character as a carnal and dangerous one
(18-19).  Apollyon's reason for recounting Christian's weaknesses
of the past is to discourage him from following Christ.
Christian remembers the same infirmities and more, but when he
does, he chooses to leave them in the past and to praise the
Prince for forgiving him (48).  With a comparison, Bunyan
illustrates the importance of the attitude held in viewing a
given circumstance.  The comparison Christian makes of Religion
in both his "Silver Slippers" and his "Rags" (82) reveals fresh
open-mindedness in regards to practical Christianity.  The witty
comparison of the two little children Patience and Passion shows
how these two attributes are acted out (25-26) and what the
rewards of each are.2  Stuart Sim has justly noted:  "Bunyan sets
himself a specific ideological objective in his fiction and that
is to provide morale-boosting allegories for the nonconformist
elect.  His literary project, therefore, involves incorporating
theological doctrines into narrative form for polemical purposes"
(149-50).
     Complementing the use of form, Bunyan's use of imagination
artfully appeals to the heart.  One imaginative device he
frequently employs is drama and dialogue, showing "an extremely
sophisticated awareness of different levels of discourse and
considerable skill at characterization" (Seed 69).3  George
Bernard Shaw himself praises the "terse manageableness" of the
dialogue and the directness in which vivid sentences "go straight
to the mark" (quoted in Batson 45).  For example, when Pliable
and Obstinate try to persuade Christian to return to the City of
Destruction with them, the dialogue form contributes more realism
and credibility to the dilemma than if Bunyan had used
interruptions such as "he said" and "then he said."
     Bunyan's gift of appealing to the imagination is most needed
in especially long passages describing certain persons and
places.  Yet in the longest narrative descriptions, he is also
most successful, for his use of imagery and his sensitivity to
the reader's greatest fears and dreams give us such memorable
portraits as Vanity Fair (72-76), Giant Despair (93), Devils and
Thieves (102-103), Hell (30), Christian's crossing the river (128-
29), and his entrance into the Celestial City (130-33).
     Bunyan believed in the New Testament exhortation to use
hymns and spiritual songs as encouraging reminders, for in
addition to the Apology and the Conclusion, the main text of The
Pilgrim's Progress is sprinkled with nineteen poems resembling
hymns.  Of these, eleven are poems of celebration and joy, five
are warnings or reminders, and one is an elegy to Faithful.  Few
if any of them are what most modern readers would consider good
poetry; the seventeenth-century standards would grade them even
more harshly, for they contain uneven meters and rely on slant
rhymes.  Still, one can see why Bunyan would use them to teach:
the variety of genre, the summaries in a form conducive to
memorization, and the surprising witticisms they sometimes
contain, all have the ability to enhance learning.
     Indeed, the this wit and comic impulse are still another
method Bunyan uses to stir the imagination.  John Livingston
Lowes has gone so far as to remark: "English comedy lost a master
when Bunyan was born Puritan" (63).  He left us proverbs that
instruct us even today, such as "A bird in the hand is worth two
in the bush"; "Hedges have eyes and little pitchers have ears";
and "Penny wise and pound foolish."
     Sometimes Bunyan uses comedy to help readers see the
frailties in others and possibly in themselves.  Talkative's
conversation with Faithful is abundant in delightful ironies,
highlighted by the marginal comment "Talkatives dislike of bad
discourse" (62).  A comic situation arises when Faithful and
Christian tire of him and must devise a plan for getting him to
leave (66).  Since much of the doctrine in The Pilgrim's Progress
is so heavy-handed, this gentle satire only enhances the didactic
theses surrounding it.
     Bunyan's universal recognition has endured for three hundred
years.  In 1861 a committee headed by the Earl of Shaftsbury
placed a beautiful statue over his grave.  A more beautiful
statue was placed in his memory on St. Peter's green, Bedford, in
1874.  At its unveiling, Dean Stanley of Westminster spoke of
Bunyan's greatness as a man and a preacher.  He concluded,
however, that John Bunyan was greater still "as the dear teacher
of the childhood of each of us, as the creator of those
characters whose names and faces are familiar to the whole world"
(quoted in Nelson 166-67).
Notes

     1See A Tinker and A Poor Man:  John Bunyan and His Church,
in which Christopher Hill surveys the popular literature of
Bunyan's past and lifetime that served as sources for his
imagination and general knowledge.
     2Parenthetically, one of the dullest and most confusing
passages in the entire book derives from Bunyan's attempt to
explain how to have courage.  His allegorical tale comparing
Little-Faith and Esaus reveals his interest in the chivalric
romance, but the long, uninterrupted narrative with the tedious
cast of biblical characters mixed with fictitious characters is
unsuccessful in clarifying his stance.
     3David Seed notes that Bunyan was not interested in the
theatre as were other novelists, but that he recorded debates
during trials, even his own, using direct speech (69-71).

Works Cited

Augustine.  On Christian Doctrine.  Trans. D. W. Robertson, Jr.
Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958.
Batson, E. Beatrice.  John Bunyan: Allegory and Imagination.
London: Croom Helm, 1984.
Bunyan, John.  Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.  1666.
Ed. Roger Sharrock.  Oxford: Clarendon, 1962.
---.  The Pilgrim's Progress.  1678.  Ed. N. H. Keeble.  Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1984.  [All page references in the text are for this
edition.]
Fish, Stanley Eugene.  "Progress in The Pilgrim's Progress."
English Literary Renaissance 1 (1971): 261-93.
Forrest, James F. "Allegory as Sacred Sport: Manipulation of the
Reader in Spenser and Bunyan."  In Bunyan in Our Time.  Ed.
Robert G. Collmer.  Kent, Ohio: Kent State UP, 1989.  93-112.
Hill, Christopher.  A Tinker and A Poor Man: John Bunyan and His
Church, 1628-1688.  New York: Knopf, 1989.
Knott, John R., Jr.  "Bunyan's Gospel Day: A Reading of The
Pilgrim's Progress."  English Literary Renaissance 3 (1973):
443-61.
Lowes, John Livingston.  Essays in Appreciation.  Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1936.
Luxon, Thomas H.  ""`Other Men's Words' and `New Birth':
Bunyan's Antihermeneutics of Experience."  Texas Studies in
Literature and Language 36 (Fall 1994): 259-90.
Nelson, William Hamilton.  Tinker and Thinker:  John Bunyan.  New
York: Willett, Clark, and Colby, 1928.
Sadler, Lynn Veach.  John Bunyan.  Boston: Twayne, 1979.
Seed, David.  "Dialogue and Debate in The Pilgrim's Progress."
The Pilgrim's Progress:  Critical and Historical Views.  Ed.
Vincent Newey.  Totowa, New Jersey: Barnes and Noble, 1980.  69-
90.
Sim, Stuart.  "`Safe for Those for Whom it is to be Safe':
Salvation and Damnation in Bunyan's Fiction."  John Bunyan  and
His England, 1628-88.  Ed. Anne Laurence, W. R. Owens and Stuart
Sim.  London: Hambledon, 1990.
Winslow, Ola Elizabeth.  John Bunyan.  New York: Macmillan, 1961.