Stay on the Narrow Way . . .
for wide is the path that leads to Destruction.
The Pilgrims Progress is one of the bestselling books of all time. But at nearly 350 years old, this beloved allegory of the Christian life can feel antiquated and worn, despite scenes of great beauty and turmoil. A modern reader might stumble at the conventions of the 17th century prose and never get to Christian’s battle with Giants, dragons, and devils, to say nothing of the soaring palaces, impassable swamps, majestic mountains, cursed valleys, and the glorious Celestial City itself.
There have been many attempts to bridge the centuries for modern readers, from full-cast audio productions to movie adaptations to musical versions. Many have been done well, but we still saw a gap between the thick Puritan prose on one hand and the merciless amputations required to make it a 2-hour movie on the other.
The solution, we believe, was waiting for us in the early 21st Century: an episodic podcast series (complete with cinematic music and sound FX). Even while attention spans have allegedly dwindled to goldfish levels due to our constant smartphone-swiping, people are using those same phones to binge entire seasons of programs, often spanning dozens of hours.
With that in mind, critically-acclaimed novelist Zachary Bartels has adapted the content of the original epic into a format ready-made for the modern reader, leaving nothing out. Now well into the second season of the show (tackling Bunyan’s Part II), High and Silver Presents: The Pilgrim’s Progress has grown to include a book, study materials, and an online community eager to see the next installment drop.
The Podcast
The podcast “High & Silver Presents: The Pilgrim’s Progress” is available on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, and pretty much anywhere you might be listening to streaming audio content.
The general format is: every other episode is a presentation of the next chapter of the story, followed by an episode of discussion called “The Pilgrims Digress.” You can have a listen to the podcast below. . .
The Book
With the completion of Season 1 (covering the events of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part I), the text was compiled into a novel, featuring more than 150 illustrations spanning 150 years. The book is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books. If you are planning a group study using High and Silver Presents: The Pilgrim’s Progress and members of your group would prefer a physical book, rather than audio content or digital text, contact us for a group rate on books.
When Season 2 is complete (covering the events of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II and the pseudepigraphic Pilgrim’s Progress: The Third Part, published in 1693, five years after Bunyan’s death), we plan to release that content in a book (possibly two volumes) as well.
Study Guides
Zach and Alex first conceived of an episodic, narrative podcast of The Pilgrim’s Progress when the men’s group at their church bailed on a group study of The Pilgrim’s Progress before the halfway point. The archaic language; extended, unbroken conversations about theological minutiae, and random poems did not connect with young men in their twenties and thirties—at least not enough for them to keep up with the weekly reading schedule.
It is only natural, then, that we provide study materials to accompany our telling of this classic Christian allegory. (Note: we are currently running a beta group, meeting biweekly, making our way through the entirety of Season 1, and tweaking the study guides as we go. A church in the Albany NY area has also completed a similar study and provided feedback. Final versions of the study guides will be available below.)
