The Pilgrim’s Regress

Geoffrey Bles, 1933

Historical Background

First Christian bookOnly prose allegoryWritten in two weeks!John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s ProgressKey: DesireLots of foreign language quotationsJohn = EverymanSome important notes from Kathryn

Lindskoog

The Pilgrim’s TravelsWest Running away from God Running toward Joy (the Island) Reason Mother Kirk (church) Hermit (History) The Jewish Law

The Pilgrim’s Travels North—Arid Rationalism Ignorantia—Knowledge (Kant) Mr. Enlightenment—Atheism, Naturalism (Claptrap) Virtue—Natural Human Conscience, Self-Reliance Technology (Gus Halfways) Linguistic Philosophy Sigmund Freud (Sigismund) Spirit of the Age (Reductionism, called theism wishful thinking) Bulverism Mr. Sensible Counter-Romanticism (Mr. Neo-Classical or agnosticism,

Humanism, Mr. Angular [T. S. Eliot], Mr. Neo-Angular or intellectual Christianity)

Fascism and Communism (Marx) Rigidity, Greed, Coldness

The Pilgrim’s TravelsSouth—SentimentalismThe Arts (Media Halfways, Dadaism)Poetry (Mr. Halfways, Eschropolis, Edith Sitwell as

Victoriana)Thrill—Beautiful LiteratureLuxuria—Sexual Indulgence (D. H. Lawrence)Drug-induced MysticismWitchcraftRomanticism (including love of Nature)Mr. Broad (the Liberal Church)IdealismMagic (Anthroposophy and Rudolph Steiner)Intoxication