The Pilgrim's Regress

[Josh]

The Pilgrim's Regress is the first book Lewis authored as a Christian. It's a fantastical allegory of his life journey of faith- from growing up with confused religious beliefs, through atheism and the "zeitgeistheim" (spirit of the age characterized by ideas such as Freudianism), to theism, and eventually to Christianity, all interlaced and held together by the main character John's dogged pursuit of the mysterious object of all his desires- an island far off in the west.

It's become one of my top 3 favortie books by Lewis. I'd read it several times. Most currently, I've been listening to it on CD (Robin, thanks so much for letting me borrow it. It's very well done)

Someday I'd love to do a several week study on the book, but that'll have to wait some time. Parts of it are very dense, but other parts (especially the beginning section where John grows up in Puritania) are very accessible.

If anyone ever wants to read it, it's in our library. In our library we also have a guide to the Pilgrim's Regress entitled Finding the Landlord. It's super helpful in deciphering many of the cryptic symbolism in the book.

I know Nate's read it? Anyone else? Thoughts?

[christopher]

I think I would love to read this book. But I might have to borrow the CD's from Robin...I have much more time to listen than to read.

[robin]

I don't need them back, so feel free to pass them around. By the way, I have a hard time deciding which of Lewis' books is my favorite, but Pilgrim's Regress would be near the top of the list. I think I would put The Great Divorce at the top.

[Josh]

Robin: what do you like most about Pilgrim's Regress? Which parts/ themes?

[robin]

Hi Josh, My time is short but I will give you a couple of my favorite quotes from the book.

However, it all ended with pointing out that the Landlord was quite extraordinarily kind and good to his tenants, and would certainly torture most of them to death the moment he had the slightest pretext.

This is where John first learns about the Landlord (God) from the Steward (Clergy). What a confusing message, that we are all too familiar with.

"... The Landlord has taken the risk of working the country with free tenants instead of slaves in chain gangs: and as they are free there no way of making it impossible for them to go into forbidden places and eat forbiddden fruits. Up to a certain point he can doctor them even when they have done so, and break them of the habit... You must not try to fix the point after which a return is impossible, but you can see that there will be such a point somewhere."



"But surely the Landlord can do anything?"



"He cannot do what is contradictory... it is meaningless to talk of forcing a man to do freely what a man has freely made impossible for himself."



"I see. But at least these poor creatures are unhappy enough: there is no need to add a black hole."



"The Landload does not make the blackness. The blackness is there already wherever the taste of mountain-apple has created the vermiculate will. What do you mean by a hole? Something that ends. A black hole is blackness enclosed, limited. And in that sense the Landloard has made the black hole. He has put into the world a Worst Thing. But evil of itself would never reach a worst: for evil is fissiparous and could never in a thousand eternities find any way to arrest its own reproduction. If it could, it would be no longer evil... The walls of the black hole are the tourniquet on the wound through which the lost soul else would bleed to a death she never reached. It is the Landlord's last service to those who will let him do nothing better for them."

I really must run now, but I'm will get back to this when I have time.

God bless

[Josh]

Robin,
Did you find the text for the Regress online? If so, what's the link?

[robin]

I couldn't find the entire text, so I stole these from a blog that I found. I will look to see if I can point you in the right direction.

Robin