'25 SUMMER READING LIST, #15 - "THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS" BY JOHN BUNYAN

This is the oldest book on my list, and the first one I've become familiar with. I heard an excerpt when I was in children's church in 6th grade. In the 80's, I saw two movies based on the book (one live action, the latter animated) and read an article based on the portrait of a pastor from this book.

I finally read it in the '90's. I wasn't aware until then that Bunyan wrote two parts of the story. The above mentioned movies were based on the first one, and I thought it was stronger than Christiana's journey. 

In "The book of Lists" I saw in the mid '70's, "The Pilgrim's Progress" was on top of "The Most Boring Classics." At first, I thought it might be anti-Christian bias on the compilers part, but after reading it, I can see why. There are a lot of discourses in the book, and it's easy to picture a non-believer to lose interest. Still, it belongs on my "Must Read" list.

By the way, this is the second of the two books that are on both my list and the Renovare list. 

 

BOOK REVIEW - "THE POSTMODERN PILGRIM'S PROGRESS: AN ALLEGORICAL TALE" BY KYLE MANN AND JOEL BERRY

 What do you get if you combine John Bunyan's classic "The Pilgrim's Progress," "The Wizard of Oz," "The Shack," and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," committing such a project to a couple of gentlemen (or not) known for satirizing both the church and the government? Yep, it's "The Postmodern Pilgrim's Progress" by the brains of the Babylon Bee, Kyle Mann and Joel Berry.

I am giving this book 5 stars, because of its ambition and complexity and trying to make all the parts work well together. The rating has nothing to do with whether I enjoyed the book or if I thought it effectively handled its ambitious aims. My hunch is most of the readers would say it did; I didn't think so. But that's due to my taste (or, perhaps, the lack of taste of others).

I go out of my way to give limited info on the book for the purpose of avoiding spoilers, and I'm attempting to do the same here. I can give this synopsis: Ryan attended a mega-church solely because of a promise to his dying younger brother, and gets hit on the head by a falling video monitor. What follows is a long dream that takes place in seconds of real time.

The thing that took away from my enjoying the book the most was the narrator who was from a different reality. Then again, some might love that narrator. 

One last comment. This book does a good job at pointing out where modern Christianity has drifted in certain practices, but Mann and Berry did not include political satire in this book. In my opinion, it's aimed more at Christians rather than an evangelistic tool.