In search of

... On a Quest

I’m not a guy who likes to stand still. Even my holidays tend to clear away my normal day-to-day responsibilities so I can think of things I might also be doing. So, during a holiday break in 2006, while I was enjoying the sweeping views of seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, my next ‘big idea’ hit me…

Why not re-write the Christian classic “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan for a modern audience?

After all, the original’s fantastic, but the language is ye olde Englishe, clunky and hard to access for today’s readers. There have been some past attempts to clean up the language for those not used to ‘thees’ and ‘thous’, but no real efforts to translate it into a modern context. Why not re-imagine it so that 21st century Christians can also benefit from Bunyan’s reflections while he suffered in prison for his faith?

A quest of sorts was born!

For a bunch of reasons the quest got put on the back-burner when I returned from my break (not the least being my shock discovery that Kel Richards had just released an excellent Aussie slang version of Pilgrim's Progress).

But a chat with your.sydneynglicans.net editor Mark Hadley changed all that. We've revived it as a wiki-type writing project. Just how powerful is the Internet for linking creative Christians? Could it be used to produce a new translation for an online readership? More importantly, would you be interested in coming along for the ride?

Imagine" your work published as an online book, maybe more - your creativity contributing to an up-to-date, readable version of this best-loved Christian classic.

Why not put these lazy summer days to good use?

This is how it will work:

- Download John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. You’ll find it’s divided into ten ‘stages’ or chapters. The copy we’ve got to work from is a copyright free pdf of Bunyan’s classic so there’s no need to go looking.

- Choose one of the stages you’d like to have a go rewriting. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) so we can keep track of who’s trying what, and see where the gaps are. Selections of the final chapters and editing will be handled by Mark and myself.

- Keep in touch on the forums. We’ve started a Quest thread at sydneyanglicans.net so you can see which chapters people have expressed interest in and which ones need help. It will also be a good place to exchange ideas and discuss issues with the project.

- Commit to the deadline. We don’t want the project to hang around forever so we’re setting the notional deadline of the end of March for submissions - before the university workload or business commitments get too distracting ;)

Here's my first chapter as a guide for the sort of style that we're looking for.

I'm really looking forward to reading your adventures, so let the quest begin!

Andrew is Sydneyanglicans.net's resident digital scholar and the pastor of the Asian Bible Church (ABC), a congregation of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. Hey, check out the NEW convention that's happening on the Australia Day public holiday: The Australia Day Convention!