C.S. Lewis published The Pilgrim’s Regress in 1933. It was his first published work after his conversion to Christianity and his first book of Christian apologetics.
The book is an allegorical journey by a character named John, who seeks the “Landlord” while encountering competing ideas, temptations, and intellectual obstacles. Its title deliberately recalls John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, but Lewis’s work addresses modern philosophical and cultural arguments rather than simply retelling Bunyan’s narrative.
Lewis had returned to Christianity in stages. He described himself as a theist by 1930 and became a Christian in 1931, influenced in part by conversations with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. Because The Pilgrim’s Regress appeared two years later, 1933 is sometimes confused with the date of Lewis’s conversion. The publication date identifies the book’s first appearance, not the beginning of his religious change.