Critics of The Pilgrim's Progress the Second Part (Part II, 1684) complain about it lacking drama: the route is much the same, the danger is escalated in number of fight encounters at the same time as being trivialized by protector Great-Heart's swift victories. The family dynamics dwell on instruction to women and children, there are arrangements for marriage, and a clutter of other underdeveloped support cast members are picked up and folded into the pilgrim group along the way. I think...

Hot on the heels (well, in publishing terms) of Into the Pilgrimverse came the Norton Library Series edition of The Pilgrim's Progress . This project took 3 years to complete and gave me a new and deepening friendship with my co-editor, Margaret Breen of the University of Connecticut. We "zoomed" from our desks a continent apart for over 500 hours, at my best guess, before we submitted the final proofs after 3 rounds of revisions. And we only finally met in person this summer at the...

I’ve written a number of academic articles. I’m so grateful for the editors and anonymous peer-reviewers who have given of their time and expertise to help refine those arguments. These articles inevitably use scholarly terms as short-hand pointers to discussions that are known in the field of study. That’s why articles in peer-reviewed journals can read like insider talk to any curious readers from outside of academia. And my students in a general education class at Biola University are...