"The Pilgrims Progress" by John Bunyan?

[Jas31784]

I was told by a Protestant friend that this is an amazing life changing book to read.
However something’s I’ve read online seem to say it is very anti Catholic.
Has anyone read it and have an opinion?

 

[DebCWil]

I’ve read it. It’s more than anti-Catholic, which I can get beyond. There are statements within the book that go against Catholic teaching. I have yet to figure out what to do with my copy. I don’t want to pass it on to anybody.
I had always read that Pilgrim’s Progress was a literary classic. The interpretation of scripture is not sola scriptura. The catechism taught is not what the Catholic Church teaches.
An example is the statement that we cannot have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in this lifetime. That would go against the Sacrament of Confirmation by which we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Pilgrim’s Progress denies the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the life of the Christian.
It is very much focused on the puritan work ethic.
There is little about Grace, or the Power of God to change a person’s life. although there is a call for repentance and changing from wicked, sinful, slothful ways.

 

[Talitha712]

I haven’t read it, but I’ve been warned against it. Apparently it’s not as anti-Catholic as his earlier writings but I still wouldn’t read anything of his, if I were you.

I have yet to figure out what to do with my copy. I don’t want to pass it on to anybody.

May I humbly suggest the garbage? That’s where my copy of The Golden Compass and other questionable books went, to keep them from falling in the wrong hands.

 

[Kei]

Wait, I though John Bunyan was a giant lumberjack?

 

[Talitha712]

I thought that was Paul Bunyan?

Could be wrong

 

[Jas31784]

That’s interesting.
See some compare it to the early Christian writing , The Shepherd of Hermas, which I did love reading. Actually some early Christian’s had considered that scripture.
So I had been interested in read The Pilgrims Progress, but yah if it goes against everything Catholic I wouldn’t have interest. It does make sense though if it comes from a Puritain state of mind.

When I was in college I remember a professor telling me the Puritan settlers in the northeast United States would be rolling over in their graves if they knew it was now majority Catholic. It’s true I suppose though not a bad thing.

 

[Jas31784]

Yah that’s Paul Bunyan. He was just a mythical person made up by a timber company for advertising in Maine but it is pretty engrained in American folk lore now.

 

[Kei]

Yup, I’m just really bad with names.

 

[dochawk]

I read it in an advanced college class on the evolution of the novel…

I was the only person in the class, and met with a Jesuit priest weekly (it was normally only for senior english majors, but I was in the honors program. The english major chickened out . . )

Even as a pre-novel, he only had me read parts of it–not for the theology, but because it wasn’t important enough as literature.

I did read all of Robinson Crusoe, though.

Come to think of it, 30 years later I don’t remember much more about that class than that, other than my paper noting that Crusoe’s “faith” was an economic transaction, being papist or protestant as advantage suited him. (and probably a factor in my dictates for “transactional” Christianity and Judaism, and thus why Eastern Christianity was so appealing when I met it . . .)

hawk