tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6066810694113528505.post4771958418182385025..comments2023-04-10T06:04:29.212-07:00Comments on 1001 Books: 328. Pilgrims Progress - John Bunyanabbotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09679934732013045639noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6066810694113528505.post-54532045868007276492010-03-05T00:28:41.915-08:002010-03-05T00:28:41.915-08:00I really enjoy following your blog and love the wa...I really enjoy following your blog and love the way you review stuff. Usually...<br /><br />Unfortunately, with this one, I wonder if you've considered the significance of the book to Christian thought and the religio-political scene of the time. I've made the same mistake with a book I didn't enjoy because I didn't understand the era and reason it was written. For example, it influenced a whole genre of Christian allegorical writing that was, as most genres tend to become after their initial seminal start, much more mature: C.S.Lewis, George MacDonald, Madame de Guyon and, more recently, Frank Peretti. So, whatever our opinion of its theology and literary style, we can't deny it's legacy. Sometimes, you rate books as "Boring... but important." Perhaps this one should have been "Awful... but important."<br /><br />While misrepresenting a book on a book blog is one thing, misrepresenting God and the faith of billions who follow him is another. I appreciate that not everyone will want to follow the God I love. But I do expect people who have valid criticisms of Him to respectfully make sure that those criticisms are based on a true understanding of the issues involved before they voice their claims. To claim, for example, that "immoral and intellectually deadening tactics... come straight from the Bible" is to forget that for the vast majority of Christians Literary Criticism is bordering on heresy. For the vast majority of Christians, who are Dispensationalist, the Bible is a watertight document of Truth and there are good intellectual and moral reasons for believing so, and there are many writers (Lewis, Zacharias, Schaeffer) who can help you far more in that department than I can, although I'd give it a go.<br /><br />I respect that you have a right to your opinion that Christianity is all about "a morality based on fear, a vengeful god who values meaningless symbolism more than conscience and rational thought." After all, it's your blog. But I would like to find out what you base that opinion on. I'm afraid that my 20 years of Christian experience reveal a fundamentally different reading of what the Bible teaches. Even my reading of Bunyan helped to reinforce this. It is a morality based on grace alone (the beautiful allegory of Christian's progress to and relief at the cross is one of the most powerful images of this in western Christian writing), vengeance falls largely on His own Son, and there is an intellectually unimpeachable God who says "come let us *reason* together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." The question remains, therefore, are you prepared to engage your intellect and reason with Him?<br /><br />Feel free to get back at me at <a href="http://www.johnandsheena.co.uk/books" rel="nofollow">Arukiyomi</a>.Arukiyomi - the spreadsheet guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16637480891553081475noreply@blogger.com