by Guest » February 24th, 2005, 3:29 pm
I don't think Pilgrim's Regress is about trying to correct Bunyan himself; it seems to be about Lewis' own story. I don't know how much reading of Puritan theologians he might have done. I suspect that his title and the use of the term Puritania has more to do with borrowing from the popular notion of what Puritanism was about.
Lewis' character is leaving Puritania, which has been said to be a picture of the Christianity of Lewis' youth, a particularly Protestant Anglican view, vehemently anti-papal and low-church (although not the congregationalism of the separatist Puritans). Lewis, as an adult, came to appreciate a more high-church Christianity, for the rythm established by the seasons of the Church Year, and for symbols, ecclesiastical wardrobe, candles, colors, and so on. In the meantime, if you've read Suprised by Joy, you're aware that his own journey took him from his childhood faith to atheism and back. I have a feeling that simply reading Surprised by Joy can shed a lot of light upon the journey through Pilgrim's Regress.