Week 3 - Religion and Science

Out of the three texts that were assigned to be read for this week, I think that The Pilgrim's Progress and "A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton" continue to be relevant today.

Firstly, and a text that will almost definitely be continuously relevant, is "A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton." This text is still relevant because it is simply Isaac Newton discussing his theories on color and prisms. Our understanding of colors has not been updated much, if at all, since Isaac Newton's theory was published through this letter. Really he is just discussing the idea that light is always white until it is either refracted through a prism or a colored filter is placed in front of the light source. There really is not a lot to talk about with this text. It is what it is, and the theory still holds up today, as most of Newton's theories do.

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, however, is a lot more interesting in how it is still relevant today. The Norton Anthology of English Literature really describes it best by saying, "The Pilgrim's Progress is the most popular allegory in English. Its basic metaphor--life is a journey--is simple and familiar..." (2142). I think this is pretty accurate and literally any person can agree with the sentiment. Life is a journey, and each location in this piece is a metaphor for some aspect of life that each person has to deal with in order to reach their ultimate goal. In the case of the character 'Christian' from the piece, that goal is to reach 'The Celestial City,' which is a stand-in name for heaven.


While the piece most definitely was intended to be digested with its obvious Christian themes, I think it can still be looked at with a contemporary lens where those themes don't necessarily have to be considered. For example, 'The Slough of Despond' can represent the doubts and fears that drag anyone down. It does not have to represent sin or things that keep one from religion. Another example could be that of 'The Vanity Fair.' While in the context of The Pilgrim's Progress it is supposed to be representing all of the temptations in life that cause one to sin, it can still simply represent temptations in life that cause people to lose their way in life, whether it be alcohol, sex, money, etc.

Although the language of The Pilgrim's Progress can be a little bit difficult to digest, especially for a non-English major, I think just about anyone could get something out of it. While the Christian themes are not as relevant in our more secular society, the ideas that each part of the piece represent are still very much relevant because they represent different aspects of the human condition. In that way, it is very possible that The Pilgrim's Progress will continue to be relevant until humans either die off or evolve beyond our current emotions.