Pilgrim’s Progress, Prison and OCD
The life of John Bunyan
The first novel in English, Pilgrim’s Progress, was written in prison. Even more remarkably, in class-obsessed 17th century England, the author John Bunyan was a handyman (a tinker) with little education.
What are the experiences that shaped a tinker to write one of the great masterpieces of literature?
In all my reading of Bunyan, what has gripped me most is his suffering and how he responded to it. What it made of him. And what it might make of us…suffering is a normal and useful and essential and God-ordained element in Christian life and ministry (John Piper, The Hidden Smile of God).
Early days
Bunyan was born in Bedford, England to a tough environment.
I was brought up at my father’s house in very mean condition…the meanest and most despised of all families in the land. (Bunyan, Grace Abounding)
Even if Bunyan was exaggerating a little, external data backs up his family’s poverty.
Moralism
At age 16, after the death of his mother and sister in an epidemic, he joined the army to fight in the English Civil War.
Returning to Bedford at age 19, Bunyan described himself as a tearaway who:
infected all the youth of the town…with all manner of youthful vanities [empty activities]. (Bunyan, Grace Abounding)
But his life changed when he met his wife. She was from a Christian background, so Bunyan took on her Christian faith and began attending church.
Neighbours were amazed at the change in Bunyan’s life. But on reflection, he realized this was just an act. He had not changed. Bunyan referred to this period of his life in Pilgrim’s Progress as going to the “town of Morality”.
A conversation he overheard when working as a tinker brought him out of moralism.
…three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun, and talking about the things of God…they spoke as if joy made them speak. (Bunyan, Grace Abounding)
Did Bunyan experience OCD?
Many of us are familiar with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We may joke of being ‘a bit OCD,’ particularly in these times of coronavirus. But what is OCD?
Psychiatrist, Dr Gaius Davies, provides a nice summary:
The person seems compelled to suffer the presence of thoughts and feelings that he or she would like to disown, but cannot. The sense of being compelled to think, feel, say or do something which seems silly or bad is the reason we nearly always see the two words ‘obsessive-compulsive’ linked together. (Davies; Genius, Grief, and Grace)
Many eminent psychiatrists have written on the mental anguish of Bunyan. For example, Gaius Davies and Sir Aubrey Lewis have argued if he was alive today he would have been diagnosed with OCD and in need of treatment.
What were some of his symptoms?
The courage and openness of Bunyan about his mental illness were far ahead of his times. It seems he experienced a combination of obsessional thoughts, compulsions, and hearing voices for several years:
In prayer I have been greatly troubled at this time; sometimes I have felt the devil behind me, pulling my clothes: he would be also continually at me in the time of prayer, to have done, break off; make haste, you have prayed enough, and stay no longer; still drawing my mind away. Sometimes also he would cast in such wicked thoughts as these, that I must pray to him, or for him. (Bunyan, Grace Abounding)
Although it’s possible when Bunyan spoke of the devil pulling his clothes to view this metaphorically, Davies suggested this probably reflected a physical manifestation of symptoms. This sometimes occurs in severe OCD and depression.
There are many other similar examples in Bunyan’s autobiography of how troubled he was by obsessional thoughts. For example:
…then was I most distressed with blasphemies; if I have been hearing the Word, then uncleanness, blasphemies and despair would hold me as captive there… sometimes, again, my mind would be so strangely snatched away, and possessed with other things. (Bunyan, Grace Abounding)
What were the causes of his condition?
Some have written off Bunyan’s condition as ‘religious mania’ but it’s not that simple. It seems clear from his writings that Bunyan had an obsessional personality that strove for certainty and perfection. He was a passionate man who felt both the great heights of faith but also deep lows.
Davies explained Bunyan’s suffering as two intertwined strands:
His spiritual suffering came about because he took the Christian message as he read and heard it with desperate intensity. The second strand, his mental torture, was worse because of his obsessional temperament. (Davies; Genius, Grief, and Grace)
Did he overcome?
Bunyan’s obsessional thoughts were driven by anxiety over the genuineness of his faith. It was through the writings of Martin Luther — in particular, his commentary on Galatians — that Bunyan finally grasped the grace of God.
In a key turning point he realised:
…that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, today, and for ever. (Bunyan, Grace Abounding)
He had been trying so hard to get things right, to be sure that God would approve of him. But he learned to rest in God’s mercy. Bunyan’s acceptance depended not on what he had done but on what Christ had done for him.
Similar developments are found in the second part of Pilgrim’s Progress, published six years later. The character, Giant Despair, is killed by Mr Great-heart, Mr Honest and others. They take seven days to demolish Doubting Castle, rescuing the pilgrims stuck there. Davies suggests this may reflect Bunyan’s development in tackling depression and anxiety.
Prison and healing
Bunyan was arrested in November 1660 and remained in jail for 12 years. Leaving behind his family, particularly his blind daughter, was a painful burden.
He had become a Baptist minister at a time when life was dangerous for non-conformists — Protestant Christians not belonging to the Church of England. Bunyan, in typical style and conviction, had refused to stop preaching.
Prison was a challenging but fruitful time. Bunyan wrote his most influential books (including Pilgrim’s Progress) and prison had a profound impact on his faith:
I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now [in prison]. Those Scriptures that I saw nothing in before were made in this place and state to shine upon me. Jesus Christ also was never more real and apparent than now. Here I have seen him and felt him indeed. (Bunyan, Grace Abounding)
It was also during this time that Bunyan may have finally overcome his anxiety and depression:
His faith developed and grew stronger. It seems at the end of this time he finally emerged successfully from the period of anxiety and depression…He had learned through the things he suffered. He was a deeper, broader and wiser person. (Davies; Genius, Grief, and Grace)
Bunyan and suffering
In what ways did suffering equip John Bunyan for his ministry?
- His experiences uniquely prepared him to counsel those who struggled. While some from the Puritan era were known for their harsh and judgemental ways, Bunyan had a heart for those who suffer (“He that is down, needs fear no fall, He that is low, no pride.”; Poems of Sentiment: VI. Labor and RestSong)
- Pilgrim’s Progress, probably the first novel in English, was forged during his unique struggles. It is a literary masterpiece reflecting Bunyan’s battles with doubts about the Christian faith, overcoming mental illness, and experiencing unjust imprisonment.
- Suffering helped Bunyan to understand the human heart. This made him a fine preacher. King Charles II once asked John Owen, vice-chancellor of Oxford University, why he had listened to an uneducated preacher like Bunyan. Owen responded: “May it please your Majesty, if I could possess the tinker’s abilities to grip men’s hearts, I would gladly give in exchange all my learning.” (J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness)
Learning from Bunyan
We may not experience the extremes of suffering that John Bunyan did. Nor may we experience his gifts either as author or preacher. But there is much we can learn from his life.
First, to walk a long road of obedience through tough times. Mental health problems can be a long-term challenge, even for mature Christian believers. Bunyan modelled this with courage and integrity.
Second, we can allow suffering to shape our character and pass on the comfort we received to others as he did:
…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3–4, NIV)
Third, Bunyan was a fruitful servant of God despite the challenges of prison and mental health problems — these challenges need not be a barrier for us either.
