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Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim's Progress

Oliver Hunkin,

John Bunyan,

Alan Parry (Illustrator)

4.33 · Rating details · 2,049 ratings · 170 reviews

The world-famous, much-loved classic Pilgrim’s Progress is here retold for children. This abridged version uses the original words of John Bunyan as selected by Oliver Hunkin to present a gripping narrative. Filled with intricately detailed illustrations, this handsome, large-format book makes an ideal gift.

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Hardcover, 126 pages

Published July 10th 1985 by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (first published 1985)

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Average rating 4.33 ·

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· 2,049 ratings · 170 reviews

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Jan 17, 2008 Ray rated it really liked it

Ok, that title sounds like a cheesy Rex Reed movie review. But this book really did grab me. The illustrations are generously sized and very detailed. No matter how many times you have read Pilgrim's Progress you will be challenged to see things in a new light. And your kids will be drawn into the timeless story.

In a day when Western culture has lost its Biblical morrings and no longer sees life as a pilgrimage, a jounrey to Heaven, this book draws us out. It pulls us from the search for inner ...more

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Jan 26, 2021 Christine rated it it was amazing

Read to all three kids over the weekend and everyone loved it.

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Jan 23, 2019 Bekah rated it it was amazing

I loved reading this book with my daughter. Such a beautiful allagory of our journey on the straight and narrow path.

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Jan 09, 2021 Alaina rated it it was amazing

This Children's picture book version of Pilgrim's Progress is well done. It has some graphic monster drawings (that any other book I would probably choose not to have in our Children's library), but if I am to show my young boys monsters I want them to associate them with evil and exactly what this book says. Excellent story excerpts and boys want to read it over and over again. ...more

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Apr 03, 2020 Samuel Bierig rated it really liked it

Just great! Third time through for me and our two older ones. Some pretty gnarly art in here for little ones though.

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May 07, 2013 Brian rated it it was amazing

My old review of Pilgrim's Progress is too long, but I want to comment on it without deleting it. Goodreads should let up on the wordcount nazi thing and allow long reviews to be posted on goodreads--and then release such reviews as books. Or not. Anyway, I totally forgot I'd written that review of Pilgrim's Progress, in my freshman year at college no less! That would have been before I even got into social Trinitarianism, FV dark, and Doug Jones, and when I was into neo-Calvinist culture-making My old review of Pilgrim's Progress is too long, but I want to comment on it without deleting it. Goodreads should let up on the wordcount nazi thing and allow long reviews to be posted on goodreads--and then release such reviews as books. Or not. Anyway, I totally forgot I'd written that review of Pilgrim's Progress, in my freshman year at college no less! That would have been before I even got into social Trinitarianism, FV dark, and Doug Jones, and when I was into neo-Calvinist culture-making and Lordship!

I can't delete the above, but I want to see if I still object as much as I once did. Here are some thoughts:
Objectio #1: I think it's stupid to critique for being episodic; you can be episodic and great--vide Don Quixote. I still think that Presbyterians need to get out more and read more fiction and that the sequel, though better than 90% of all sequels, is still way weaker than the first because Bunyan doesn't have to work as hard inventing things. Even so, the sequel still works: even the children, who lack individual personalities, have a collective personality that seems to fit quite well and one can sense Bunyan drawing upon his experience as a pastor in his portraits of Mr. Fearing, Feeble-Mind, and Despondency. It seems that his depression which so afflicted his preconversion life was externalized in most depressed parishioners!

Objectio #2: I still basically agree with all this. In fact, what struck me the most about re-reading Pilgrim's Progress is the semi-Catholic "penitence" period. Make no mistake: some realization of sin and repentance is necessary for salvation, but I think codifying such feelings into a stage-by-stage process does not describe either most Christians or even most of the characters in the New Testament. As a friend put it, when Peter preaches at Pentecost and cuts the people to the heart, there are no stories of people struggling with how God could forgive them. Assurance is a natural problem and guilt is a natural part of the Christian life and of non-Christian conversions, but great feelings of it are not necessary and I think Bunyan would reject the salvation of many without sufficient proof.

Objection #3: I think I would offer different critiques here, ones that were more narrow. Certainly, the Christian life is an individual one in certain respects and Paul compares it to a fight and to a race, with the crown received indeed being eternal life. I am suspicious of talking about the church as salvation; we'd need to distinguish between visible and invisible and institutional and so-forth to get this straightened out, but I would still say that salvation is not about getting helicoptered into heaven and just holding down the fort until then, which is what the theology points to. I would say that if Pilgrim's Progress errs anywhere, it focuses more on loving God than on loving one's neighbor, and that's mainly because of the vehicle Bunyan has chosen. Though there IS a community in part two, the focus is more on getting there and on avoiding sin than on actually producing good works.

What about the gnosticism? First, I would say that "gnosticism" is a misnomer. Gnostic (or Platonic) theology has less to do with it, and in fact it has to do more with Catholic bifurcations between nature and grace. Second, I'm more sympathetic to Bunyan's truly deep thoughts about not looking to the things of this world and looking to those of the world to come. I was also very much struck on this reading by how much material stuff is in the Pilgrim's Progress. In fact everything has been turned from spiritual INTO material stuff, and in fact it goes with Bunyan's rejection, not of the material, but of artiface vs. nature. Vanity Fair is a work of gaudy artiface, contrasted with the Valley of Humiliation, the Delectable Mountains, and Beulah. Even so he does not romanticize nature, giving good pictures of frugal households: the Interpreter's house and the Palace Beautiful notably which are noted for their dainties and meats. So I suppose I have to retract all the gnostic-speak with one exception: I still think his descriptions of heaven go on a bit too long and are not as good as Dante or the book of Revelation.

Reading it in the middle of a Richard Hooker translation project is especially illuminating and Bunyan's narrow sectarianism does come out, but Lewis was right: the seriousness of the mortal situation is what made Bunyan so great. And compared to Grace Abounding, this stuff is tame.
In fact, Bunyan is almost a Marxist! Nearly all the good guys are simple, lower-class, Bible-thumping sorts, and all the bad guys like Worldly Wiseman, By-Ends, Formalist and Hypocrisy, and so on are all rich and external conformers. This makes Doug Jones' critique so ironic and in fact the biggest criticism I would make of the book is Bunyan's concept of "the world." I think that the early church fathers, the first Reformers, and 20th century Evangelicals are all under persecution and it's damaged our theology. The antithesis threatens to mean that the mainstream culture will always oppose the faith (or at least the faithful distinctively outside that mainstream) and that therefore when the two come into conflict, we can know pretty well in advance who's right simply by consulting the tribe. History does not bear this out: Christians have been wrong on all sorts of issues and all tribes and denominations have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The "world" means the world of unbelief and we apply the typology properly, not when we see two cultures in conflict, but when we suffer for the sake of Christ because of a "company" that blacklists us. That "company" need not be in the majority or even the dominant element in society. It might be an insidious minority trying to stir up trouble. Bringing this back to Pilgrim's Progress, I think Bunyan makes a lot of great hits on his enemies, often hitting their patterns of speech and hypocritical externalism dead center. I think that if we looked in the Anglican church of his time, we would draw the same conclusions as he did.

Nevertheless, I say, his bias against the Church of England sometimes comes across as mere partisanship; his attacks on externalism seem uncharitable; his hatred of gaudiness and ceremony sound like the grumblings of the man who sees no reasons for all this pomp and show; and his insistence on standing for the word of God despite all concerns about public peace are ominous and sometimes obstinate.

Even so, I think it's a great book and it's great because literature to be great need not be precisely theologically accurate. Great literature must capture life with as much clarity as possible. In fact, Bunyan's partisanship is one of his greatest strengths. I still like what I wrote about the allegory not being primarily valuable as a didactic, except perhaps in the theological bits (which I actually like very much). However, I do not go to Pilgrim's Progress to be edified, but delighted and this time around I was struck by how clever the book is, especially in the first part.

If you talked to a Jew or even a Catholic, pilgrimage meant going to the city of Jerusalem to sacrifice in the Temple or kiss the saints' relics; no more of that now. Bunyan has turned it all into a permanent journey from which there will be no return. We wander through "the wilderness of this world" and we hope to reach the promised land. In the first part, the invention is non-stop: Despond, Sinai, archers at the Gate, hill difficulty, the lions, Apollyon, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair (how many books spawn both a literary classic AND a magazine), Giant Despair, and the river of Death itself are all visual, memorable, and often strange twists or extrapolations of small Biblical phrases. Even the second part, for all its repetitiveness, invented the muck-raker.
Bunyan also says in the introduction of the second part that his prose is difficult to imitate and there are so many wonderful words in here and even a few insults (how could I forget that he called Hopeful a clamshell head?) that are so true to life. Okay, the characters are allegorical, but they so often talk as if they weren't and their language is so homely that it betaketh itself most lovingly to the mind.

So the allegory is somewhat deceptive, behind the labels are the realities of Bunyan's current day. One cannot get into the Pilgrim's Progress without breathing, at least for a little, the air of the Sixteenth century. I can't think of any better recommendation on which to end this little reflection than to urge you to get a copy of Alan Parry's illustrated Dangerous Journey and to read it aloud to your kids. Not only is it a beautiful copy, but it will give your kids an opening into another time that is rarely so accessible. Lewis said that Bunyan got an education simply by pursuing the Christian faith; I think reading Bunyan will do the same. ...more

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May 16, 2018 Frank Theising rated it really liked it

Shelves: childrens, christian-fiction

An abridged, illustrated version of John Bunyan’s 1678 classic The Pilgrim’s Progress. Taken directly from Bunyan’s text, the archaic language may be difficult for young/new readers but our daughters have no trouble following the story when I read it aloud. For those unfamiliar with Bunyan’s allegory, this book does not shy away from covering serious issues of Christian life and faith (trials, temptation, doubt, martyrdom, grace, etc). I think in part because this is not your typical sugar-coate ...more

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Oct 27, 2017 Lydia rated it really liked it

this was a true story!

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Dec 16, 2020 Summer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: boys-reading-corner, childrens, action-adventure, christian, classics, great-reads

We have been working through this book slowly, but only by my limiting how many pages a day we actually get to read. If I let them the boys would have been done with this in a week! They loved it and made so many Biblical connections. Far more than I had thought, honestly. We have been drawing a map of Christian's journey and very often in casual conversation the boys bring him up.

I'm very thankful for this illustrated version. ...more

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May 18, 2015 Logan rated it it was amazing

Read in May 2015, July 2016, June 2018, December 2019, February 2021, and many times before.

Fantastic illustrations that capture the young imagination, very well-abridged text that stays true to the original, and of course, one of the best stories ever written. I still love this volume years later.

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Dec 12, 2018 Kelly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: age-group-juvenile, allegory, cim, jbf, read-aloud, shd, school, adventure, picture-books, classic

Read aloud to the boys. Seems like a great introduction to the classic, which I think we're not *quite* ready for yet. The illustrations are very well done.

My boys (7.5, 5.5, 2.5) enjoyed it quite a bit. ...more

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Aug 09, 2021 Jen rated it it was amazing

My 3 year old son really loved this story, even though it was fairly text heavy for his age & most of the vocabulary was over his head. I stopped often to recap what was happening & he was especially intrigued by the art work. It would have been too scary for me at that age, but every time we read, he would beg for just a couple more pages. So happy to introduce him to one of the most epic stories!

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Mar 30, 2018 Scquest rated it it was amazing

Read this through with Tanzen. The language is archaic, but I think it is worth reading and explaining to children. We will read it again, I am sure.

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Oct 03, 2018 Sarah Middlestead rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018-2019-read-alouds, chapter-books-read-with-kids, read-with-the-kids, 2018-picture-book-read-alouds, form-1

Eli: 4⭐️, Abby 3⭐️, Grace 2.5⭐️

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Feb 11, 2019 Angel rated it it was amazing

Wonderful!! My children listened to me read it aloud in two sessions! One of the best stories ever written, hands down.

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Apr 15, 2021 Deanna Weigel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Read it with my kids. They loved it and the illustrations were so fun to look at while we read.

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Jul 15, 2019 Rebecca rated it really liked it

An old story renewed; with beautiful graphic illustrations, much of the original cadence and the same powerful reminder that the life of faith is indeed a dangerous journey.

While the book has great read-aloud potential, the pictures might be disturbing for very young children.

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Mar 20, 2020 Joah Pearson rated it it was amazing

Abbreviates the Pilgrims Progress without losing its flavor or depth. Wonderful way to introduce kids to Bunyan's amazing allegory - much better than the CGI feature film that came out recently. ...more

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Aug 02, 2020 Desiree Muller rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 10, 2020 Ammie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Read through this once over the course of a couple of months and then followed along today as we watched the movie, which is really just an audiobook with the pictures of the book zoomed in. We enjoyed the story both slowly and in one chunk. Definitely one to share with your family.

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Mar 22, 2008 Blackest Soul Ever rated it liked it

Recommends it for: "christians" who've forgotten what the basis of their faith is supposed to be

Recommended to Blackest by: mom

i'd read/had this book read to me by my mother when i was young. i'm not entirely sure at what specific age. i recently ordered my own copy and found the story applicable as more of a universal truth than just one that applies only to those of the christian faith. i ordered it more for the illustrations than the writings. i'm definitely glad to have a copy, both for sentimental reasons and for the wisdom contained in it. the story is simply told, but the struggles that christian endures can be c ...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Ester rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classic-fiction, christian-fiction

This is not the fully unabridged version, which I haven't read, but this version still carries with it the essence of the story (I imagine), which is perfectly complemented by the illustrations. So good are the illustrations that I used them for an art project about 'Pathways to Life'. What is most amazing about this book to me though was that it was all inspired by a dream that the author had. I truly believe that God was behind that creative revelation and the book has continued to encourage t ...more

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Sep 07, 2019 LeAnne rated it liked it

Shelves: christian-fiction, 17th-c, literature, adventure-stories

Gorgeous paintings by Alan Parry on every page, full of drama and even humor. Oliver Hunkin’s text stays close to the 17th century original although abridged. Unfortunately that makes it less accessible to young readers who would love the illustrations. I also can’t imagine what the book designer was thinking to use italics instead of quotation marks to indicate dialogue. Some pages use block paragraphs with no space between them instead of indenting the first line. Inadequate proofreading? In s ...more

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Jul 31, 2008 Ann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children

This is a beautiful story of Pilgrim's Progress made readable for children. The illustrations are absolutely amazing. If children are small, I'd read it with them as the pictures and the accompanying story may possibly frighten them !! For all of us who have (or have had) little boys who are looking for daring adventure books, this is a GEM !! ...more

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Aug 10, 2015 Philip Mcduffie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: christian-fiction

This was the first audio book that I have ever listened too and I enjoyed it thoroughly. This version of the Pilgrim's Progress is not as good as the original (once you take out one word from Bunyan's original you have lessened the work), but it was fantastic. Grab a hold of the Pilgrim's Progress and be spiritually encouraged as you make your own journey to the Celestial City. ...more

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Mar 01, 2011 Cbarrett rated it it was amazing

Some words are a bit outdated, but that is the only negative I can think of with this book; the story and the illustrations are magnificent. Taylor loves this book. If you want a children's version of the story of Pilgrim's Progress, this one is excellent. ...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Marianne rated it really liked it

Just read this with my boys. They loved the book and asked every day if we could read another chapter. The pictures are fantastic and help tell the story. My 8 yr old wants to read the "bigger version". This is a great intro to Pilgrim's Progress! ...more

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Oct 09, 2014 R.L. rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone

One of the most accessible renderings of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress yet created. The story is a treasure, full of golden nuggets of wisdom applicable to anyone in the world. The pictures are great and bring the story alive for children.

I highly recommend this book for all ages. ...more

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Oct 24, 2018 John Yelverton rated it it was amazing

This illustrated version of "The Pilgrim's Progress" makes it ideal to read to your children without losing any of the power or the context of the classic work. Furthermore, the artwork is fantastic and truly ignites the imagination of the reader. I cannot recommend this book enough to you. ...more

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