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Throughout the history of Christian Literature, there have been numerous authors who have captivated readers as well as taught them Christian doctrine and theology. From the writings of the first apostles such as Paul and Matthew, all the way to today's authors such as Tim LaHaye and Max Lucado, numbers of them have endeavored to address how the life of a Christian is and how a Christian can cope with the difficulties thereof. Multitudinous methods have been employed to express the ideals and the methods by which that ideal may be attained. Some have told it as it is such as Paul.

Let your love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good. Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another. (Romans 12: 9-10 Amplified Bible)
Or others have sought to do it by study of the scriptures and writing their findings. These can come in the form of commentaries, concordances, or dictionaries among other forms.

Another way to achieve the expression of the Christian ideal and the way by which to accomplish it is through allegorical works and fiction. One of the foremost fiction as well as non-fiction writers of Christian books and essays in the last century is Clive Staples Lewis. He has written various series such as the popular Narnia series and the highly acclaimed Screwtape Letters. One of his earlier works, The Pilgrim's Regress is an allegory that addresses Christian theology, philosophy, and doctrine in a narrative dream about one man's search for Heaven and God. The idea for using a dream as a literary device to tell the allegory was not his in origin. In fact, The Pilgrim's Regress is a modern day answer to Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress written and published in the seventeenth century. It was a sensation in its time. Each of the books, The Pilgrim's Progress and The Pilgrim's Regress present in themselves the religious views of the time periods, and a simply interpreted allegory of the Christian life and what it requires and entails.

The Pilgrim's Regress begins with the statement "I dreamed of a boy who was born in the land of Puritania and his name was John" (Lewis 20). From this starting point Lewis takes the reader on a journey with John who is on a search for Paradise. The story begins with John as a little boy who goes out to pick flowers from the garden. His mother comes out and smacks him and tells him never to do it again. A year later, John takes his sling and is about to kill a bird but the cook comes out and gives him a good smacking. He asks why he should not kill the bird. The cook responds by saying that the Landlord would be angry and that it is His country. The Landlord is representative of God. John then asks why the country belongs to the Landlord and the cook hands him off to the mother who talks with him. Afterward she resolves with her husband to take John to the Steward. The Steward is representative of a hypocritical priest. The Steward shows John a list of rules overwhelmingly long and says he must obey them or else the loving and graciously kind Landlord would throw John into the His Black Hole "full of snakes and scorpions as large as Lobsters - for ever and ever" (22). The impression all this made on him was that of a contradictory nature. The Landlord was supposedly kind and loving yet had a Black Hole into which He would freely throw anyone whom He found disobeying the rules. John becomes so discouraged that he gives up on the rules because he finds them self-contradictory.

Time goes on and the concept of death is introduced to John and is symbolized in the book by his Uncle crossing over of a stream into the mountains of the Landlord. One day, as he is walking along a part of the road (symbolic of the paths of life or thought) that he has never known before and hears a beautiful melody. He is drawn to it and finds that is comes from a window in a wall by the side of the road. Through the window John sees an Island that is absolutely fantastic. Yet this vision of paradise mixes with his own desires and to him becomes something it really is not. The Island is representative of heaven, perfect happiness, and absence of worry. John desires to see the Island again and again and yet the experiences occur less and less with a decreasing amount of pleasure. He tries to conjure it and cannot but a naked brown girl (representative of lusts of the flesh) appears and claims to be the object that will fulfill his desires. He has sex with her and finds her claims to be false yet close enough to the truth to get John into a bad habit. He breaks away and decides to seek the Island.

John runs away from home and heads West to the Island. He soon meets a man by the name Mr. Enlightenment. Enlightenment explains away the religion he once held and brings him to the point where he abandons his beliefs with great relief. Enlightenment moves on and John meets a man by the name of Virtue. While walking with Virtue, John has the idea to kill a bird with his sling but doesn't because he chooses not to. This is John's first real moral experience where the choice was his and his basis for the choice was himself. Soon Virtue and John meet a girl who is slightly brown named Media Halfways. She is representative of aesthetic pleasure. She leads John to a town called Thrill but Virtue stays on the road. John meets Mr. Halfways who tells him that the island is inside John and can be reached through romantic song. This seems correct at first but then dwindles into sex with Media. Gus Halfways, Media's Brother, presents John with the option of poetry from the machine age and the poetry styles of the twenties. John eventually gives these up, though slightly damaged by them.

He encounters Freudianism next and is drawn in. The philosophy is that the Island is simply wish fulfillment. This path leads him to be jailed by a Giant whose sight causes skin to become transparent and the innards to be clearly visible. This is quite revolting. The Giant is representative of the spirit of the Age, the intellectual climate of the time, and the philosophy that life is simply a mechanical bundle of complexes. John's common sense rebels against this philosophy. A woman named Reason is introduced and is the slayer of the Giant. John goes back to the road and is accompanied by Reason for a while. They discuss the Freudian Giant and Reason gives John her philosophy that all things must have evidence behind them. Then, Reason goes on to question about the Island and whose wish it fulfills. John leaves reason behind.

At this point, John has been through many philosophies and worldviews, all of which have come short of Heaven, of fulfilling the desire. He decides to begin to live virtuously once again hoping that doing such will enable him to reach the Island. He comes to an impasse. There is a huge canyon that he must cross in order to get to the West Coast. He feels he must do it on his own. He meets an old lady named Mother Kirk who is representative of real Christianity. She explains that there was once no canyon, but a catastrophic event occurred and the Landlord formed the canyon. The Canyon is representative of the gap between humanity and God that is created by sin. John is too proud to accept Mother Kirk's help and tries to find a way across on his own.
This leads him north to the house of Mr. Sensible. He is representative of cultured worldliness. Mr. Sensible patronizes religion and spirituality. The religion of sensible men is temperance and moderation in all things including religion. However, his slave Drudge is the sustainer of his house. Drudge rebels and decides to go North to the land of the Pale Men. Mr. Sensible is shown to be parasitic not only of Drudge, but of surrounding areas. He cannot grow his own food. All his thoughts are parroted from others original thought.

This brings John north with Virtue whom he met again at the canyon. To the north they meet three Pale Men. These Pale Men are strange creatures who love things not for what they are but for what they are not. Each of the three is a friend with the others only because they are not something. They are Nihilists. They all reject Mother Kirk and Christianity and claim that they do so by personal ability even though the possibility of rejection on their part never existed.

Giving up these crazy fellows to search for a way across the canyon, Virtue and John head south. Virtue has become sick because morality does not have a place with the philosophies of the north. There is no longer any desire for the Island in John. He has been too confused and befuddled by the philosophies of the world. As they head south, virtue goes blind and dumb and is very weak and John must lead. Here, to the south, John meets Mr. Broad. Mr. Broad's goal is to modernize religion. Mr. Broad is a great advocator of Metaphysics and gets John involved in the study of it. Mr. Broad sends John and Virtue further south to Mr. Wisdom's house. In a roundabout way, John's imagination is reawakened. He dreams one night that he is able to leap across the canyon. At Wisdom's house, the children of Wisdom such as Kant, Marx, Steiner, Spencer, and Spinoza bombard John with political philosophies.
At the house of Mr. Wisdom, John is indoctrinated with pantheism. The philosophy of pantheism is that life is a dream dreamt by no one in particular, but everyone altogether in "the Mind." However, once John tries to live by this philosophy, he finds it rather difficult. Virtue has run away from him after healing a bit and regaining his sight and speech. John follows Virtue along the canyon going down into it, but becomes afraid. Christ comes and pushes him on. His pantheism turns itself into theism and religion. He determines that he must individualize himself from the mind because the mind is obviously something different and far greater. God then shows him grace in giving him bread and water. This forces John to acknowledge His existence.

In a cave in the side of the canyon, John meets an old hermit who is representative of history. The hermit explains to John the history of all the philosophies he has encountered. He goes through Jewish history and secular history. History shows John that emotion-evoking pictures of paradise and the Island that are sent by the Landlord are not enough. A complete person is an amalgam of both emotion and intellect. Just one or the other is not enough. Each picture is of one or the other form. The Enemy distorts these pictures so that the desire is ruined until the Landlord sends the next picture that not only is something totally unexpected by the enemy, but also revives the purpose and desire of the last picture.

John now understands much more and realizes that he is close to becoming a Christian. He attempts to run away but Reason appears again and stops him. He faces Death on the cliffs of the canyon. Death admits its own weakness. This weakness is that once someone has died, Death no longer has any power. He then proceeds to meet Mother Kirk at the bottom of the canyon. There is a pool of water where he must abandon all self-preservation and dive in. All of the states of mind from his journey come back to haunt him and tempt him to return to them. He finally convinces himself that they are not worth giving up the Island for and jumps in along with Virtue. The two of them come up on the other side of the canyon and travel to the West Seashore. Here he meets the Guide (representative of the Holy Spirit or a guiding Angel). The Island is just ahead across a small body of water. Under the suggestion of the Guide he looks well at the Island and sees that he has come all the way around the world to see the other side of the Landlord's mountains. The only way to get there is by going back across the continent. The Guide takes John and Virtue and leads them along the way. The scenery has changed to show what people and places really are. The Guide gives answers to all of his questions such as the purpose for the Black Hole and how God is still loving despite it. The Guide tells John and Virtue that they must each go fight dragons. John is to go to the north to fight the dragon of cold in order to gain hard-mindedness and Virtue to go to the south to gain passion from the dragon of fire. They defeat the dragons, each his own, and then meet with the Guide on the road again. They continue back past John's old house and cross the stream. That is the end of the story (Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress).

The Pilgrim's Progress begins with Bunyan giving "an apology" for the allegory in the form of a poem (Bunyan 3). Then he begins the story by falling asleep and dreaming of a man in rags reading a book, weeping, and lamenting "What shall I do?" (11). The temporarily nameless man then goes home and tells his family that he has discovered that their city will be destroyed by fire from heaven and there seems to be no escape. A burden is then on his back (representative of knowledge of sin and destruction). His family thinks him insane because he would brood and mourn day and night and would neither eat nor sleep hardly at all. One day, he is walking in the fields and he cries out "What shall I do to be saved?" (12). He feels the urge to run and escape but does not know where to run. Now appears the first allegorical character by the name of Evangelist. Evangelist is representative of the ideal Christian minister (Sharrock 280). Evangelist gives the man a scroll on which is written, "Fly from the wrath to come" (Bunyan 12). The man asks where to and Evangelist answers by directing him to leave the city of Destruction (the man's home town) and head to Wicket Gate (symbolizing the beginning of God's grace and the Biblical "narrow path" or "way" that few find.

At this point, that man's name is revealed as Christian. On his way to the Wicket Gate, two of his neighbors, Obstinate and Pliable, see him and follow him. They begin to talk and Obstinate mocks and denies for himself Christian's decision to seek heaven and avoid destruction while Pliable decides to come along. Soon they reach a miry slough (bog/swamp) called the Slough of Despond. This represents the depression that occurs when one admits to one's own sinfulness. The difficulty thereof causes Pliable to turn back, though he was a rather promising possible convert. Christian does not give up though because a man named Help comes and sets him on solid ground. Help tells him that there are steps (representative of promises of forgiveness and life by faith in Christ) but Christian tells Help that he missed them because he was fleeing in such a hurry.

Next on Christian's journey, he meets Mr. Worldly-Wiseman who convinces him to leave the path and go to a city named Morality where a man named Legality can council him. The symbolism here is that the world says we can reach salvation through moral works. Christian is stopped by fear of Mount Sinai (representative of Moses or Old Testament Law) and Evangelist comes, rebukes, and sets Christian on the right path again.
At the Wicket Gate, Christian meet Good Will who asks him some questions then tells him to proceed through the gate and gives him a little pull to get him in quickly before Beelzebub has a chance to attack. Next, Christian arrives at the House of the Interpreter (teacher or minister) on the top of a Hill (difficulty at the outset of the Christian walk). At the house, Christian is educated about many things such as blaspheming the spirit, the works and frustration of Satan and the cleansing of sin. At the top of the Hill, Christian meets Mistrust and Timorous who turned back from the way to the Celestial City (heaven) because of dangers ahead. Christian converses with them and when they try to convince him to go back, Christian says, "to go back is nothing but death, to go forward is fear of death, and life everlasting beyond it" (40). Passing these two cowards, Christian continued on to a place house called Beautiful which is representative of Christian fellowship. In Beautiful, Christian converses with Discretion, Prudence, Piety, and Charity from whom he learns much. He also is armored for his journey in case of trouble.
After the Hill there is a valley named Humility in which he meets Apollyon who is a demon of high order. They do battle because Christian has armor only on his front and cannot run. Apollyon knocks Christian down so that his sword flies out of his hand, but before Apollyon deals the final fatal blow, Christian is able to grasp his sword and skewer Apollyon. Then on Christian went through the Valley of the Shadow of death during the night and part of the next day. His struggles there were fear, nearness to Hell, and thinking he blasphemed but it was not really himself. In the middle of the night when he was nearest the mouth of Hell he heard another ahead of him crying out as he was against the evil in the name of God. This encouraged him and he sought to catch up. When he did, he discovered a companion for his journey whose name was Faithful and they discussed each other's journeys thus far. On the two of them went meeting and rebuking people such as Talkative who "talked the talk" but only for the talk's sake and did not bother with "walking the walk".

Now comes the most famous part of The Pilgrim's Progress, the town called Vanity-Fair. In Vanity-Fair Christian and Faithful are tempted with the vain philosophies, and possessions of the world. They reject the hecklers by saying, "we buy the truth" (80). Because of this, the people of Vanity-Fair become riotous and bring Christian and Faithful before the judge of the town, Lord Hategood. The three witnesses Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank (a flatterer) bear witness against them so that they are beaten then jailed, brought back before the court and condemned to death. Faithful dies here and the method was this:

They therefore brought him out to do with him according to their law; and first they scourged him, then they buffeted him, then they lanced his flesh with knives; after that they stoned him with stones, then pricked him with their swords and last of all they burned him to ashes at the stake. Thus came Faithful to his end. (86)
Christian escaped and is joined by a man named Hopeful who is a young Christian but very much the debater.
The two companions went along their merry way encountering a few troublesome people along the way till the came to a fork in the road where each path looked to be right and straight. A man named Vain-confidence led them the wrong way and they are caught in a snare. The owner of the land is Giant Despair whose home is Doubting-Castle. The two of them contemplate committing suicide because their torture and hopelessness are so great. Christian remembers after a while that he has a key called promise that they use to escape. They encounter some shepherds once they are back on the right path. The shepherds show them the Gates of the Celestial City, the by-way to Hell and a few other areas and leave them with a warning. Here, Bunyan breaks the flow by saying that he woke up and went back to sleep. It was at this time that Bunyan was let out of jail.

On the last leg of their journey, Christian and Faithful meet Ignorance who inspires conversation about the why and the how of falling away. They also meet Atheist, but the issue is not seriously dealt with, just laughed at by Christian and Hopeful. One they went to a place called Beulah which was the near the Gates of the Celestial City. Here, Shining Ones (angels) were common and Christian and Hopeful rested here. Then they were led to the River (death) that they must cross to reach the Gates. It was said when the pair asked of its depth, "You shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the King of the place" (136). Christian lost his footing and went wild for a bit, but then regained his senses and the journeymen crossed to the other bank. Into heaven they went, and there was much rejoicing. Ignorant came after them, but when he tried to get through the gates, he was rejected and was taken away to the door to Hell and was dropped in. "Then I saw that there was a way to Hell, even from the Gates of Heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction" (142). Thus ends The Pilgrim's Progress.

Now that both stories have been explained, there are many obvious differences as well as some excellent similarities. Both works are written in the form of allegory and contain clear symbolism that is easily interpreted. Both were composed for the purpose of enlightening the Christian of the day about the battles and the glories of the Christian life. The similarities are generally superficial, but the differences range on all levels of depth.
One main difference that cannot be known simply by reading the text is that Bunyan's story was autobiographical and Lewis' was not. Bunyan had written based on his own experience in life. Sharrock, says this of Evangelist, "He represents the ideal Christian minister. Bunyan may be recalling the Bedford pastor John Gifford, who had helped him out of his spiritual crisis" (280). In addition, some of the characters were representative of political and religious figures of his time. Roger Sharrock interpreted the old giant that was crazy and stiff in his joints by saying "This reference to the weakness of Papal power could hardly have been written after the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 had occasioned renewed Protestant fears of Catholic influence" (284). He also frequently made mention of or characterized Biblical people such as Simon the Sorcerer or Moses (285).

Lewis, antithetically, wrote his story purely as fiction. Some of his own struggles and questions were expressed and his conclusions were displayed throughout the text. He addressed the issues of his time just as Bunyan did. With Bunyan, it was hypocrisy in the Church, unjust imprisonment, religious squabbles and the like. Lewis addressed and expounded upon such issues as Pantheism, Atheism, the problem of pain and Freudianism.

Another difference is the authors' approach to God and Christianity. Lewis began with a child who had much faith in what he was told, questioned it, denied it, went around the block of theology, and ended up with a reality of what was an imitation that he had in the beginning. With Lewis, God is something to be thought out and reasoned to be true. Bunyan on the other hand began with a man who discovered the condemnation of sin, sought the remedy, discovered the promise and followed through to receive the glory. From Bunyan's viewpoint, God and Christianity are things that are naturally accepted. That is why Bunyan did not address atheism but had Christian scoff at it. In Bunyan's time, it was an oddity to be a non-Christian whereas the converse is true in Lewis' time.

The main difference between the two books is in the authors themselves at the time of their writing. Bunyan was in prison for preaching in a field. The problem was that Bunyan was a non-conformist and preached without an official license from the state church (John Bunyan 1). He was in jail many times on the same charge and wrote his most famous works while incarcerated. Lewis, on the contrary, was no where near prison. The Pilgrim's Regress was Lewis' first work as a Christian. He became a Christian on September twenty-eighth in 1931 and The Pilgrim's Regress was published in 1933 (Into the Wardrobe: Biographies 1,2). Bunyan was very mature in his Christianity and his understanding of its requirements, hence, a book about the Christian walk. Lewis was really a new Christian, though a very knowledgeable one, and hence, a book about becoming a long process of becoming a Christian.
In the end, both are excellent books and still beneficial to this day. Both ought to be read by all in a juxtaposing manner because of the truths conveyed and the encouragement given can be truly beneficial to one's spiritual walk. From Bunyan, one draws strength as a Christian to live the Christian life and help other Christians to live it righteously. From Lewis, one draws apologetic concepts and theories about Christian Theism. They are truly a pair of supremely spiritually beneficial books.

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