'[W]hen thou dost anneal in glasse thy storie': 1 Retelling Bunyan and Rehabilitating Dissent in Stained-Glass Windows

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 22; pp. 84 - 113
• Main Author: Collé, Nathalie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2018
• Subjects: Allegory; Allusion; Baptist churches; Biographies; British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Christianity; Design; English literature; Epic literature; Fate; Libraries; Literary canon; Literary devices; Literary influences; Literary translation; Narrative techniques; Phenomenology; Publishing; Publishing industry; Rehabilitation of criminals; Stained glass; Websites; Windows & doors; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]Bunyan can be glimpsed', Davies notes, 'in other material forms': 'as a statue in Bedford [...], as a painting in London's National Portrait Gallery [...], and in commemorative windows and murals found not only in the Bunyan Meeting Free Church in Bedford, but also in Anglican cathedrals and churches'.2 This article investigates the phenomenon of stained-glass windows inspired by Bunyan and his work, challenging, with Davies, the commonly held view that 'in the latter half of the twentieth century Bunyan's presence migrated irreversibly from the lives of ordinary people to the libraries of academics and their students'.3 It explores the creation and installation of windows paying tribute to Bunyan and his work and commemorating them, first on a local scale and on Bunyan territory, and then beyond Bedfordshire, on a national and also an international scale. The Progress will make its way up Church Road and Manor Farm drive following Christian in Scene 7 through the straight but narrow path between fierce village 'lions' to House Beautiful where the Virgins of the House will serve refreshments, including wines and soft drinks, for all deserving pilgrims! 8 Singing the Bunyan hymn, enacting scenes from The Pilgrim's Progress, and transforming Bunyan-inspired stained-glass window designs into vegetal and floral ones formed part of the celebrations organised in a village in northern Bedfordshire to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The stained-glass window (Figure 3) which formed the basis of the 2012 well-dressing was commissioned to mark the 300th anniversary of the Stevington Baptist Church in 1955.11 According to the church newsletter, it 'commemorat[es] the local landscape in The Pilgrim's Progress with Christian standing at the Cross and his burden rolling into the sepulchre (our Holy Well)'.