[CWJ]∎ Download The pilgrim regress An allegorical apology for Christianity reason and romanticism Fount paperbacks C S Lewis 9780006238591 Books

The pilgrim regress An allegorical apology for Christianity reason and romanticism Fount paperbacks C S Lewis 9780006238591 Books

Download As PDF : The pilgrim regress An allegorical apology for Christianity reason and romanticism Fount paperbacks C S Lewis 9780006238591 Books

The pilgrim regress An allegorical apology for Christianity reason and romanticism Fount paperbacks C S Lewis 9780006238591 Books

The Pilgrim's Regress is an example of C.S. Lewis' more obscure philosophical works. It documents fictional character John's life-long journey to becoming a Christian and then returning to the world with a different view. John's story is apparently based on C.S. Lewis' journey, and allegedly deals with more modern-day struggles than the older Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Through the journey, John meets many characters and has many lengthy and dry discussions, all in allegory. While I think C.S. Lewis had the best of intentions in this book, I found it too obscure to make much sense, especially in the 21st century. Having been a Christian my whole life and having read Pilgrim's Progress only a couple years ago, I have to say The Pilgrim's Regress is difficult even for those who understand the underlying concepts, because the allegories are just too obscure. Lewis event admits this in the epilogue. While I made it all the way through the book, I did not understand it all and raced through some of the more dry sections.

We read this for my book club with mixed results. A few readers loved it, and most others found it too difficult and dry to be very enjoyable or thought-provoking. We had a difficult time even having a discussion about it, and no questions were available anywhere online. I believe that I got much more out of the Pilgrim's Progress, ancient as it may be, than The Pilgrim's Regress. I would probably not recommend this book.


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The pilgrim regress An allegorical apology for Christianity reason and romanticism Fount paperbacks C S Lewis 9780006238591 Books Reviews

"The Pilgrim's Regress" is an allegorical work by C.S. Lewis that I've read any number of times now. I always enjoy it and get more out of it each time I read it. It was written during a two week interlude visiting his friend of the first kind, Arthur Greeves. "The Pilgrim's Regress" is the first book Lewis wrote after he came back to Christianity. It traces the journey of a young man named John as he searches for the underlying basis of a vision he had as a boy of an "Island" seen as an ideal. He journeys through the world deviating from the main road and encounters many people who represent ideas and intellectual movements and learns more and more that ultimately leads him back to the Landlord (the figure of God).

The book is partly autobiographical, documenting Lewis's own faith journey but Lewis said it was not entirely so. He used the book in part to engage the ideas prevalent at the time it was written around 1932. I very much enjoy this book but it isn't what you're looking for if ideas are not your thing. It is a book filled with ideas and how they contrast to one another.
This is not an easy read, mainly because it is sort of auto-biographical, metaphorically tracing Lewis's own conversion experience as he tastes and discards various religious views. Lewis takes aim at the 20th century's most popular religious and philosophical systems, and hits his targets. Toward the end, the "pilgrim" questions why God would permit, allow, or create painful "hell-like" punishments. Pilgrim's supernatural guide tells him that he is on dangerous ground to question God in this regard, that he knows only a fraction of the story, and that, for instance, people create their own hell, send themselves there, and refuse to leave. The Landlord (God) actually lessens their pain by limiting the extent to which these rebels are able to assign themselves an eternal condition apart from God.

In his commentary on the book, Lewis points out that to attack God as being heartless and cruel is a nonsense argument. Much more powerful is to criticize God for being a reckless gambler. When God gave human beings freedom to make their own decisions, including freedom to love or to reject their Creator, God was gambling with the future of the universe. He was ceding control to the humans. Is God not able to rescue from hell those who reject Him? Lewis says, No. Because those people have chosen, and God cannot contradict Himself. He cannot do that and at the same time allow you to be human, a freely decision-making human who chooses to love God, or not. It's nonsense to say that God is not omnipotent because he cannot contradict himself. That would be like saying that God can create a rock that is too heavy for God to lift. In addition, God still acts with loving mercy in regard to the deaths, sufferings, and punishments of those who make the decision of their own free will to reject Him, and of their own free will choose to live with the consequences. We just are usually not able to see God's mercy with such people because we do not know the whole story.
The Pilgrim's Regress is an example of C.S. Lewis' more obscure philosophical works. It documents fictional character John's life-long journey to becoming a Christian and then returning to the world with a different view. John's story is apparently based on C.S. Lewis' journey, and allegedly deals with more modern-day struggles than the older Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Through the journey, John meets many characters and has many lengthy and dry discussions, all in allegory. While I think C.S. Lewis had the best of intentions in this book, I found it too obscure to make much sense, especially in the 21st century. Having been a Christian my whole life and having read Pilgrim's Progress only a couple years ago, I have to say The Pilgrim's Regress is difficult even for those who understand the underlying concepts, because the allegories are just too obscure. Lewis event admits this in the epilogue. While I made it all the way through the book, I did not understand it all and raced through some of the more dry sections.

We read this for my book club with mixed results. A few readers loved it, and most others found it too difficult and dry to be very enjoyable or thought-provoking. We had a difficult time even having a discussion about it, and no questions were available anywhere online. I believe that I got much more out of the Pilgrim's Progress, ancient as it may be, than The Pilgrim's Regress. I would probably not recommend this book.