Which 1933 book presents C.S. Lewis’s allegorical journey from atheism toward Christianity?

The Pilgrim’s Regress presents C.S. Lewis’s allegorical journey from atheism toward Christianity.

Published in 1933, The Pilgrim’s Regress was Lewis’s first prose work after his conversion to Christianity. Its full title, The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism, signals its connection to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress while also revealing Lewis’s own intellectual concerns.

The protagonist, John, travels through a landscape populated by figures and places representing philosophies, ideologies, and spiritual experiences. The book reflects Lewis’s movement from atheism to Christianity, but it is an allegory rather than a literal autobiography. Lewis added a preface explaining some of the ideas behind the story.

Mere Christianity is often identified with Lewis’s conversion-era arguments, but it was developed from wartime radio talks and published later. Surprised by Joy is Lewis’s autobiographical account of his intellectual and spiritual development, whereas The Pilgrim’s Regress expresses that journey through symbolic fiction.