The Pilgrim's Regress

I recently acquired a copy of a C.S. Lewis book I had never heard of:  The Pilgrim's Regress.  It is an allegorical cousin of Bunyan's classic, and I found it very interesting indeed.  As I read it cultivated in me a fresh appreciation of the literary skill and depth of thought of Lewis, and made me in turn wonder if my limited faculties have the capacity me to grasp all that he intended.  The book is honest and true.  In the preface on page 19 he writes concerning the suggestion of supplying a "key" to the allegory:  "It may encourage people to suppose that allegory is a disguise, a way of saying obscurely what could have been said more clearly.  But in fact all good allegory exists not to hide but to reveal; to make the inner world more palpable by giving it an (imagined) concrete embodiment."  This he does immaculately, and Lewis has few rivals.

I do not think it right to compare The Pilgrim's Progress to this work, and I don't believe C.S. Lewis wrote it for that purpose.  But it would be a worthy appendix because it puts in a different light the path of the genuine seeker of God and His eternal kingdom.  The pilgrim in Lewis' book, John, may take a path more often traveled than Bunyan's Christian.  Instead of a scrip in hand and a road stretching before him, John is without any direction.  He is confused with hypocrisy in the church and at a loss to know what he should believe.  The idea of God and hell bothers him, and the chance that God does not exist and therefore the lack of accountability is a great delight which quickly erodes into lust, loss, and pain.  His wandering leads him into all sorts of error.  He is confounded on every side, seeking as a phantom the Island he so desires.  Every philosophy and humanistic mode of belief proves empty and unsatisfying.  Though very prejudiced against Christianity at first, Wisdom, History, and Reason compel him to submit.  His view of everything is changed as he heads for home.  As he arrives at end of his journey, he realises he is right back where he started:  God was there all along.

It is a great irony that God gave men minds so He might reason with us, yet humans can be most unreasonable.  The very thing God provides is what Satan labours to prejudice against Him.  Of all creation, what is a more deluded and insensible creature than man?  Lewis quotes Bacon at the beginning of book four:  "Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like:  but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things:  full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?"  The world's philosophies are all from the same corrupt source, while the wisdom which comes from God alone revealed in His Word is eternal and without flaw.  Those with a prodigious ability to reason have a great scope of temptation to entertain vain philosophies which oppose scriptural truth and lead to eternal ruin.

Christianity is logical and reasonable.  A scientist will carefully cite his sources for his claims, and is not considered foolish for doing so.  It is actually proof he has studied.  He must exercise faith, trusting the data of previous studies.  Philosophers follow the rivers of thought which have been discovered and discussed since the very beginning.  Christians are not ignorant for choosing to follow Christ and believe the scripture, even as men sought the wisdom of Plato and Aristotle.  Darwin never claimed to be God - but Jesus did.  His claim of divinity and resurrection is what sets His claims apart from all other men.  The fact that He has confirmed them only adds to His credibility!  Christianity to you may appear like Mother Kirk did to John:  an old, plain woman.  For all of John's searching, he limited his search by his prejudices.  He would not consider taking Mother Kirk's hand unless he had no other choice.  Have you considered that the old woman may be right?  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Him.