If professing is meant to be about Christian confession, isn't it a misstep to have a website devoted to The Pilgrim's Progress rather than the 'gospel-strains' it claims to point to? Certainly Bunyan in his 'Conclusion' is eager that readers not be so consumed by the artifice of his tale as to miss its spiritual significance. In teaching TPP I want to reflect on ways in which it does indeed point back to the God known in Jesus Christ by the Spirit through the Bible. I also want to think about ways in which a particular cultural product from a particular historical moment endures through different generations. The persistence of this Puritan Protestant 'classic' is itself a phenomenon worthy of study. We learn about ourselves in the way we relate to artifacts like this seventeenth century book.
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