In 17th-century Christian understanding, “the world” isn’t just referring to earthly existence as a whole, but to all forces that oppose Christ. Thus “the world” and Christ (or sometimes “the Church”) are completely opposite. Historically, Christian teaching held that although a Christian must live within the world and progress spiritually against the backdrop of worldly struggles, a Christian must also categorically reject the world and constantly fight against the temptations it poses. Not only that, but the world actively fights against the Christian. At best, the world misunderstands, scorns, and rejects Christianity; at worst, it seeks to oppress and even destroy Christians. In line with this, Bunyan follows Christian’s and his friend Faithful’s struggles to extricate themselves from the world against the opposition of family and other figures. After initial success, they continue to face the world’s opposition through internal temptation and external persecution. Through opposition from various manifestations of the world, Bunyan warns Christians that they’ll never be totally free of worldly influence and hostility in this life, but that they must always be prepared to resist it and suffer at its hands.
The world doesn’t understand allegiance to Christ. Even Christian’s own family opposes him. When Christian is warned of the coming wrath of God, he is greatly distressed and resolves to leave the City of Destruction. However, even his immediate family interprets his fervor as illness, and they don’t take him seriously: “they […] thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages […] sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him[.]” Even Christian’s family, being allied with “the world,” misinterprets his enthusiasm, reacting with harshness and derision. This suggests that, when one undertakes the journey to the Celestial City (Heaven), even a Christian’s dearest acquaintances must be rejected along with the world.
The “wisdom” of the world also opposes Christians. Worldly Wiseman, the embodiment of the world’s “wisdom,” tries to convince Christian that he’s brought his distress upon himself by reading the Bible: “it is happened unto thee as to other weak men, who meddling with things too high for them, do suddenly fall into distractions; which distractions do not only unman men […] but they run them upon desperate ventures, to obtain they know not what.” Worldly Wiseman, symbolizing those who accept the world’s view of a good life, tries to dissuade Christian by arguing that only the “weak” are “distracted” by religious pursuits. Like Christian’s family, Worldly Wiseman argues that Christian’s pilgrimage is foolish. Only the ill or “unmanly” would choose to abandon what the world upholds as good.
Even once a Christian has rejected the world, the world is always trying to ensnare a Christian, even to the point of trying to destroy him or her. For one thing, the world tries to entangle Christians from within. For instance, after Faithful’s journey is well underway, a figure named Shame assaults him: “he said it was a pitiful low sneaking business for a man to mind Religion; he said that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing; and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, […] would make him the ridicule of the times.” By calling the figure “Shame,” Bunyan suggests that the world tries to ensnare Faithful from within, in the form of lingering doubts (as here, where Shame tells Faithful his religious concerns make him “unmanly” and laughable). Though Faithful initially blushes at these accusations, he ultimately defends himself by saying that “this Shame tells me what men are; but it tells me nothing what God or the Word of God is […] at the day of doom, we shall not be doomed to death or life” according to the world’s view of what’s right, but according to God’s.
The world tries to ensnare Christians from without, too. The book’s most scathing imagery of the world is Vanity Fair, a vast marketplace where every imaginable form of merchandise, sensual pleasure, and sinful indulgence is bought and sold. When Christian and Faithful denounce these “vanities,” they are mocked and imprisoned, eventually put on trial as “enemies to, and disturbers of, [the] trade.” In fact, when Faithful claims that “Christianity and the customs of […] Vanity [are] diametrically opposite” and irreconcilable, thereby condemning not just Vanity but its people, he is executed. By portraying Vanity Fair as a symbol of the world, Bunyan argues that the world and Christianity are incompatible, and the pilgrims’ condemnation to death by Vanity’s judges shows that the world even seeks to destroy those who reject it.
The world’s hatred for Christians suggests—though Bunyan doesn’t make it explicit—that the world sees its own condemnation reflected in Christians’ rejection of its ways. That’s why the world seeks to ensnare and hurt Christians so relentlessly. The world doesn’t just scorn Christianity, according to Bunyan; it resists the call to give up sin and obey Christ.
Related Themes from Other Texts
The World vs. Christianity ThemeTracker
The World vs. Christianity Quotes in The Pilgrim’s Progress
But why wilt thou seek for ease this way, seeing so many dangers attend it? Especially, since (hadst thou but patience to hear me) I could direct thee to the obtaining of what thou desirest, without the dangers that thou in this way wilt run thyself into […] Why in yonder Village (the village is named Morality) there dwells a Gentleman whose name is Legality, a very judicious man, and a man of very good name, that has skill to help men off with such burdens as thine are from their shoulders […] he hath skill to cure those that are somewhat crazed in their wits with their burdens.
[H]e said it was a pitiful low sneaking business for a man to mind Religion; he said that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing; and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, so as to tie up himself from that hectoring liberty that the brave spirits of the times accustom themselves unto, would make him the ridicule of the times. He objected also, that but few of the Mighty, Rich, or Wise, were ever of my opinion […] But at last I began to consider […] this Shame tells me what men are; but it tells me nothing what God or the Word of God is.
My Lord, this man, notwithstanding his plausible name, is one of the vilest men in our Country. He neither regardeth Prince nor People, Law nor Custom; but doth all that he can to possess all men with certain of his disloyal notions, which he in the general calls Principles of Faith and Holiness. And in particular, I heard him once myself affirm that Christianity and the Customs of our Town of Vanity are diametrically opposite, and could not be reconciled. By which saying, my Lord, he doth at once not only condemn all our laudable doings, but us in the doing of them.
I know my Lord’s will, and I have been a good liver; I pay every man his own; I Pray, Fast, pay Tithes, and give Alms […] Gentlemen, ye be utter strangers to me, I know you not; be content to follow the Religion of your Country, and I will follow the Religion of mine. I hope all will be well. And as for the Gate that you talk of, all the world knows that that is a great way off of our Country.
The men then asked, What must we do in the holy place? To whom it was answered, You must there receive the comfort of all your toil, and have joy for all your sorrow; you must reap what you have sown, even the fruit of all your Prayers and Tears, and sufferings for the King by the way. In that place you must wear Crowns of Gold, and enjoy the perpetual sight and vision of the Holy one, for there you shall see him as he is. There also you shall serve him continually with praise, with shouting, and thanksgiving, whom you desired to serve in the World, though with much difficulty, because of the infirmity of your flesh.
Then said Mercy, I think I am as well in this Valley as I have been anywhere else in all our Journey, the place methinks suits with my spirit. I love to be in such places where there is no rattling with Coaches, nor rumbling with Wheels. Methinks here one may without much molestation, be thinking what he is, whence he came, what he has done, and to what the King has called him. Here one may think, and break at heart, and melt in one's spirit, until one's eyes become like the Fishpools of Heshbon.
This River has been a Terror to many, yea, the thoughts of it also have often frighted me. But now methinks I stand easy […] The Waters indeed are to the Palate bitter and to the Stomach cold, yet the thoughts of what I am going to and of the Conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing Coal at my Heart.
I see myself now at the end of my Journey, my toilsome days are ended. I am going now to see that Head that was crowned with Thorns, and that Face that was spit upon for me.
