The Light on Celestial City

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan brings together two different types of writings; sacred and fictional. In this work, he ingeniously combines these two for the purpose of making the wisdom of the bible available to everyone who enjoys reading fictional tales. Even after 400 years, Bunyan remains an important author, not only because his works are still being read, but also because other modern authors have follow his footsteps. Authors such as Paul Young, C. S. Lewis, or Francine Rivers have incorporated Bunyan’s ideas to develop their narratives. But Bunyan’s influence goes far beyond the realms of literature. In other arts, such as, film, music and theaters, artist have used Bunyan’s style of writing to engage audiences and transmit religious messages. Another thinker from the Restoration period that remains important in today’s intellectual atmosphere is Sir Issac Newton. In his writing, “A letter of Issac Newton,” Newton utilizes reason to explain the relationship between light and colors. To do this, he utilizes a prism, a ray of light, and reason. He places a prism in a direct angle toward a beam of light and changes its position to obtain different outcomes. His experiment is an example on how Restoration intellectuals use reason to come up with ideas and different conclusions. In Bunyan’s work, Christian, the main character, is encourage to find the path to Salvation by going through different obstacles and dangers. He is not delivered to the Celestial City but rather initiated to experience by himself the path to his destination. As Christian, Issac Newton does the same by not accepting the findings of others, but goes makes his experiment to come up with his own conclusions. Even thought these two intellectuals did not write about the same subject, or even in the same field, they share a common link in their desire to let readers know that reason and experience is the preferred method to achieve their intellectual or religious inquiries.