Similarities Between Everyman And The Pilgrim's Progress

The topic of spirituality, divinity and otherworldly phenomena is quite common in medieval literature and there is a multitude of contexts, in which these topics are addressed. The protagonists of those texts find themselves in a balancing act between the secular world and a supernatural world, where they need to overcome struggles to master the difficulties of their worlds’ dualisms. Be it an otherworld of fairies or the christian hereafter, those worlds and the mundane conducts often influence each other reciprocally in the stories of medieval literature.

Faithful is just a guy who, like Christian, escapes his past life and pursues a life that is down the straight and narrow path of Christianity. A Righteous man, ridiculed, tortured, and finally burnt at the stake for his faith, Faithful lives up to his name and is the martyr of The Pilgrim's Progress—the one who suffers and dies for what he believes in. Before Christian meets Faithful on the road from the Palace Beautiful, Christian seems to be the only real pilgrim on the journey to the Celestial City. The others pilgrims he has met on his journey (Formalist and Hypocrisy, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, Mr. Pliable) have either abandoned the journey for its extreme struggles or for being shown the hollowness of their faith. But Faithful is different unlike his friends he did not have a hollow faith so when he faced the trials and tribulations he did not deal with them because of his strong faith in the Lord.

One of the most outstanding characteristics of humans is that we have a moral conscience- the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, as well as understand the consequences of actions beforehand. Nonetheless, religion remains important to society because it helps to refine and provide a deeper understanding of humans’ moral responsibility. There are instances where either people ignore religious practices in favor of reason and logic or follow only religious teachings that suit a particular situation. Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a novella that typifies the failure of religion to unify people and provide a common course for understanding life. The story talks about Santiago’s fight against fate and the probability of escaping death that is foretold beforehand. The priest symbolizes religion in the novella and readers observe that his actions are similar to those of ordinary people. Ordinarily, we expect the priest to uphold religious practices and bring people together when society is divided on an issue.

The significance of religious leaders during this era is evident by the fact that the writer of this poem places the bishop at the beginning of the table. Due to the fact that the “medieval society was a religious society” and that these religious leaders held a special relationship with God, it is no surprise that these individuals held the second highest social class position in the medieval time period (Feudalism and the Three Orders (Overview) 2).

Through the use of hopeful repetition, Jonathon Edwards conveys to the readers optimistic thoughts the shows us how God upkeeps. . Edwards stresses the fact that God wants us to be on the right path of life “restrains” (3) from sending us into hell as in giving us a second chance. Edwards uses the word “restraint” to show how God is on our side and he expects great thing out of us, the loving side of God. Furthermore, Edwards uses the word “promise” (5) multiple times to show the readers that God is not just making a promise to let everyone into heaven. Trying to convey the theme of devoting oneself to Christ, Edwards uses the phrase “God made no promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment” (5) as a reference that only true Christians will get into Heaven. This pressures the unconverted because it makes them think, “Should I convert so I can get into Heaven?” With this thought process in mind, Edwards also exclaims that God’s wrath is “eternal and everlasting” (10). This means that people cannot just call themselves Christians and get into Heaven. They have to show God that they

Everyman is a Christian morality play written during the 1400s. No one yet knows who wrote this play. It is said that Everyman is the English translation of similar Dutch morality play of the same period called Elckerlijc. Everyman is generally represented as the best and most original example of the English morality play. “Like other morality plays from the late medieval period, it is meant to communicate a simple moral lesson to both educated and illiterate audiences” (Gyamfi & Schmidt, 2011). “Everyman” is about a man who is content with his life when Death calls and tells him about his end. The author has used metaphorical names for characters to show up the moral of the play.

The theme of friendship courses through Chaim Potok’s book, The Chosen. Potok desires to show the reader what a strong friendship looks like and how it stands up to the test of time. When two people know each other well and spend a lot of time together, there are bound to be misunderstandings, fights, and other trials. Yet God says in His word “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (New American Standard Bible, Proverbs 27:17) Even when friendships are difficult, they can “sharpen” the people involved in the friendship, like in the case of Danny and Reuven. Danny and Reuven’s friendship lasts through Danny’s irrational behavior, Reuven’s outbursts of anger, and Reb Saunders’s absurd beliefs.

Religion and faith play numerous roles in people’s lives. From being a unifying factor to alienating people, and from comforting people to terrifying others, the roles of religion is vast and boundless. In The Crucible and “Upon the Burning of Our House”, it is evident that religion and faith play a subconscious role in the lives of people by acting as an inner conscience and by giving people a spiritual peace of mind.

The author concludes that Christians are to live faithfully by the values of the bible. As members of society, we are expected to play a critical role in in our community rather than isolating ourselves from those opposed to Christian worldviews. There are ways for Christians to live out their faith, but still remain active parts in the community.

Actions gathered in front of him, he splits apart the caring people and the ones who have done nothing to show love or care. The Christians who have been caring will live an eternal life and those who have not cared or helped out others will be eternally punished. This is stated where it says in the text "those who have done nothing for me will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous ones will go into eternal life" This means that God is all around us and those who are helpful, caring and loving will live an eternal life.

God has become angry with his people. He complains in the fifteenth century English play Everyman about humans and their obsession with material items, riches, and wealth. Men and women, he feels, have taken for granted their blessings. God wants to reprimand Everyman for his sinful life and sends Death to summon him. At the beginning of the allegorical work where figures and actions symbolize general truths, a messenger shares God’s concerns. The messenger tells the audience to watch and listen closely to the morality play so they can learn a lesson about life. Everyman fears Death, and he desires to know what one must do to earn salvation and enter heaven. The writer then implies that the way to achieve salvation is by doing good works.

The author of The Pilgrim's Progress is well described by Coleridge's remark: "His piety was baffled by his genius; and Bunyan the dreamer overcame the Bunyan of the conventicle." This remark points out the difficulty that Bunyan faces when he attempts to write a religious piece of work in the style of allegory. The Pilgrim's Progress is "pious" because it is a piece written in dedication to God. It contains important religious teachings -- what a good Christian should do and what he should not do. What Coleridge means by Bunyan's "genius" is basically the story itself. The story is so well written that people become so interested in the story and forget the whole spiritual truth behind and this worry Bunyan.

Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume I: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. Second Edi. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2010.

Believers have been unified in salvation by grace and are called to live like Christ.

Sir Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d'Arthur is a classic piece of literate that reveals the depths of mankind in numerous ways. Man is a complicated creature, greatly influenced by a variety of circumstances and often the choices made in those times mold man into who he or she will become. The lens for which one views beauty and goodness can be greatly affected by these experiences. As I have spent time reflecting on Mallory’s writing, it is apparent that he used several key themes to explain his views of man; those being identity, fate, love, family, and redemption. These themes parallel much of scripture and when paid attention to, can help one understand the truths of Scripture on their Christian journey.