For this Maundy Thursday, here’s a favourite purple passage. If I’d been on the ball, I would have obviously put the Alan Paton passage tonight. But I’ve not (and probably never have) been on the proverbial ball (proverbiball?).
John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is undoubtedly a classic, one which all educated people in the English-speaking world would have known inside out until perhaps a couple of generations ago, regardless of their religious persuasions. Don’t tell anyone, but I do find that some of the Pilgrim’s Progress is a bit clunky and unsubtle. But this is a passage that resonates with me, perhaps because it manages to be realistically psychological and thought-provoking. I simply love the fact that Pilgrim realises he had the key all along…
No doubt Bunyan’s own experiences in Bedford Gaol informed the psychological accuracy of the section (having been found guilty of preaching and refusing to conform to the Anglican Church after the restoration fo the monarchy).
Here we go then. If the video fails to display, click here.
- See more on John Bunyan (1628-1688) over at Wiki
- The Full Text of the book is online in various places like Wikisource
- I’m reading from the end of Part VII
- Ralph Vaughan-Williams composed a rather lovely setting of the book if you were not aware. Definitely worth checking out.
