Space For God

John Bunyan's Visual Spirituality

Posted: 03/02/2009

 

For me, John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress stands as one of the most fascinating allegories ever written. As a young boy, I revelled in the exciting journey of Christian and his trials on route to the Celestial City. Who could not be enthralled with the many depictions of winged demons, roaring Lions and the abundance of shifty, sneaky characters? Here was an adventure story par excellence.  

Bunyan penned this work to document what he felt were the inevitable trials of the Christian life. Very much a product of it's time, PP certainly embodies certain puritan theological understandings that have (for the most part) been abandoned. Bunyan himself appeared to be a rather intense figure- stubborn, defiant and complex. This is certainly reflected throughout the text. Nevertheless, the real strength of PP lies not in it's theological accuracy but in the way in which it awakens the spiritual imagination.  

PP highlights the important role that visual indentification plays in how we understand faith. It gleans insight into spiritual topics by conferring upon them a visual location in which we can either relate or reject (and therefore substitute with a visual experience of our own). Whether it be the Slough of despond, the enchanted ground or the delectable mountains, PP encourages us to enter into the texts visual world and create our own faith adventure. How would we cope? What would we do?

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