Christiana's Rudeness: Spiritual Authority in "The Pilgrim's Progress"

• Published in: Bunyan studies Vol. 7; no. 7; p. 96
• Main Author: Breen, Margaret Soenser
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Bunyan Studies 01.01.1997; Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bronte, Charlotte (1816-1855); Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Bunyan, John (1628-88); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]while it recuperates the male pilgrim who has been socially marginalized because of his class origin, The Pilgrim's Progress insists upon the female pilgrim's socially subordinate and spiritually mediated status. Significantly, 'rude' marks his potential failure to convey spiritual truth; the word recalls his description of his family background in Grace Abounding: '... my descent ... was ... of a low and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest, and most despised of all the families in the land'.13 In both texts, entrance into 'the grace and life that is in Christ by the gospel'14 supplants class affiliation as the context for self definition; even so, Bunyan does not dismiss his class origins but rather, as the above description suggests, invokes them for dramatic effect. [...]Bunyan, the literate pedlar, seems to have been a cultural anomaly. [...]the question of spiritual authority is particularly charged, especially given that the image of the burden-carrying pilgrim aligns Christian not only with the figure of the agricultural labourer, the seventeenth century's new and underrepresented member of the literate class, but also with the figure of the pack-carrying chapman, the pedlar who sold cheap reading material.19 That The Pilgrim's Progress itself appeared as a 'Penny Godliness' in 1684 further invites one to read Bunyan's text as a late seventeenthcentury allegory of literacy's potential to reorder class and gender divisions for a community of faithful.20 Such potential is not, however, realized until Part 2: in Part 1 Christian often appears confused, muddled; at times he seems close to the 'rude' state that for Bunyan marks a lack of spiritual authority.