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Surprised by Joy

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This is not a novel and not really an autobiography, but rather a first-hand account of one man's journey from atheism to belief in God (Christianity came much later and is not covered in this book--for that, read his many religious works). I discovered this little gem while living in Scotland, at a time when I was neck-deep in the pit of atheism and feeling almost totally lost. I don't know why I was moved to take it off the shelf and buy it, but it was to be only the first of Lewis's books that I read. It's still my favorite because its theme is so close to me.

What makes Lewis's book so remarkable is his unashamed honesty and willingness to shed all masks in the face of reality, no matter how unpleasant or frightening that reality may first seem. Lewis did not want to find God, and we feel with him that burning desire to run away once God has been discovered. The wonderful lightness and love that characterize many of Lewis's later works are not found here. Instead we see his defenses against God shattered one by one as he follows an intellectual path to belief. He tries his best to argue his way out of it, fighting every step of the way and using all the trivial excuses that human beings use, but we feel God's presence bearing down on him step by step like a great weight until he realizes that there is no escape. Lewis sees that it is indeed a burden at first if one has come to it honestly, because with it comes the realization that we are required to abandon ourselves and submit to God's will in order to find eternal peace. This is not an easy road for a human being to follow -- indeed, it is the most difficult thing in the world, and Lewis knew that very well. We feel with him the pain and weight that came when he realized that there IS a God: the account of his final days as an atheist is absolutely excruciating for a reader who has had the same experience.

Lewis's account of his spiritual journey shows that God can be discovered in the most unlikely places and in the most unlikely ways, no matter how hard we try to avoid Him. When we think we have trumped God, we find that He has in fact trumped us, always remaining well ahead of us on the path. Lewis's account often reads like a great chess match between one man and God, but it remains familiar because it is a match that we play again and again. As always, Lewis's honesty is disarming, his insight staggering, and his humor refreshing. I cannot recommend this book enough, but if you are looking for a biography of Lewis's life, this will not provide it. For that I recommend George Sayer's study, but the best way to find out who Lewis was is to read his books.

"Surprised by Joy" is C.S. Lewis' auto-biographical book about the early, formational years of his life, which began with a vaguely religious upbringing, led into devout Atheism, and ended in Christ's drawing Lewis home. This book is excellent as auto-biographies (Christian or non-Christian) go as C.S. Lewis was one of the 20th Century's best story-tellers and an amazingly well-read professor at Oxford as well. Whether the reader is a Christian or not, C.S. Lewis makes this story entertaining and thought-provoking.

For those readers who have come to believe in Jesus Christ as Man's only possible salvation, this book will leave them marvelling repeatedly at how Christ works in the lives of those he calls. Any Christian reader of "Surprised by Joy" will find numerous similarities in the path C.S. Lewis' salvation took him down, and a Christian reader can't help but want to join him in praising Christ for his awesome goodness in the lives of human beings he touches.

One fascinating element in C.S. Lewis' life, which is so encouraging for Christians in a post-Christian era, is that Lewis was raised by brilliant men to be constantly curious but always logical... always seeking the truth. One of the men Christ used the most in saving C.S. Lewis was a staunch Atheist; a dry, pensive, professor who demanded a rigid adherence to logic in any belief or action. This man, the "Great Knock", as Lewis, his brother, and their father called him, was so influential in Lewis' mental development that Lewis devotes a whole chapter ("The Great Knock") to discussion of him. How fascinating that whereas many today believe a rigorous pursuit of knowledge and facts leads to agnosticism, in the life of the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th Century it led to a belief in the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

This is a book that I would recommend to anyone, but as "a must" to any Christian. While "Mere Christianity" is C.S. Lewis' best-selling book, and arguably has initiated more paths to Christ than any other book outside the Bible, "Surprised by Joy" presents a more complete understanding of those paths and their ultimate result.

C.S. Lewis has written a masterpiece on the subject of one man's conversion to Christianity. Not only that, it is a must-read for any fan of Lewis, for it sheds a great deal of light on his early life and biography. It follows Lewis from childhood to his conversion to Christianity as an adult professor, tracing the influences on his philisophical and religious thinking along the way. It is in my mind a modern Augustine's "Confessions". Lewis writes, as usual, with great candor and his usual lucid, easy to follow prose that takes complex issues and makes them understandable to everyone. This style has made him one of the finest Christian authors. His 'Mere Christianity' and 'Screwtape Letters' are other examples of his books that challenge a reader's religious philosophy. Of course, Lewis is more famous in most circles for his 'Narnia' books, which are also great, but it is his philisophical and deeply personal treatment of Christianity that makes him one of the greats.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see how one man made his journey to belief and/or wants to learn more about C.S. Lewis, the man.

Wanting to know more about C.S. Lewis I thought this would be a good book to read. It did tell me much about the man, but several times while reading it, I thought about in what ways would these things he is telling relate to his conversion from atheism to Christianity. However, in classic Lewis style, the ending makes all that came before it worth every minute of my time. To the casual C.S. Lewis reader this book may seem long. I wouldn't recommend it as the first book to read by Lewis, but to someone who is truly fascinated by him and wants to know more about this man, I would highly recommend it.

Many people have written much about C S Lewis, and due to his wide appeal we have books on him from virtually every segment of the Christian world. Which leaves the aspiring Lewis devotee with a problem: Who to believe? For, as A N Wilson has rightly pointed out: `Two totally different Lewises are being revered by the faithful.' Lewis himself has solved the problem many years before his death by writing this autobiography. It is a work of art in every sense of the word, and even though essentially an autobiography, filled with so much truth and clear Lewisian thinking that authors quote it as though it were a scholarly work.

Lewis traces his path from his early years in Belfast all the way to his conversion in England 31 years later. The book tells little of the relationships in his life, and one who has read widely on Lewis cannot help but wonder about other obvious omissions and evasions. However, we are given the Lewis as Lewis wanted to give him, and that is what makes this book unique.

Whilst reading it, I was reminded of Lewis' own advice in his Preface to St Athanasius's 'The Incarnation of the Word of God', later published as a chapter (`On the Reading of Old Books') in 'First and Second Things' (ed. Walter Hooper), 1984. It remains to me the final and authoritative words on why Surprised by Joy is the most important book on Lewis' life, straight from the horse's mouth: "... I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator."

Makes you think, doesn't it?

This is a most remarkable account of one's conversion to belief. It is the eloquent yet highly readable language that Lewis uses which enables the reader to relate to his way of thinking. Lewis ultimately realizes that 'before God closed in on me, I was offered...a moment of wholly free choice...I could open the door or keep it shut...' This reveals the truth that God loves us to the extent that we are alloted a FREE CHOICE regarding whether we want to accept Him. However, it seems silly NOT to accept him! For if we abandon God, we act just as Lewis did..."darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape..."

But who in their right mind would really want to escape Joy?

This autobiography will fascinate the person who is perhaps searching for God or is unsure of God's existence. It will present a rather different perspective of conversion as it is taken from an intellectual standpoint. Finally, this book will reaffirm the authority of the One who simply declared 'I am that I am.'

Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis is a book that binds Christianity and philosophy like many say can't be done. The brilliance of C.S. Lewis is once again displayed in this most enthralling novel. Surprised by Joy is not like most other books by Lewis in that it is not a fantasy or a book for the theologen. It is really a book for a person struggling with the philosophical aspects of Christianity. Surprised by Joy is the story of C.S. Lewis' early life. It tells the story right from his early childhood on into the years of his service in the war and his college years. Lewis is very descriptive and paints a very vivid image of his early years in life. Lewis' brilliance is one thing that cannot be disputed. This book details his turn from Christianity to atheism and then back to Christianity. Lewis describes his struggles of mind about the belief in the supernatural. He describes how he came to realize that in reality to deny the supernatural becomes the absurdity. Overall this is a great book for any of those who feel Christianity is absurd or for those who struggle with the validity of the Christian faith. I recommend to all.

This book is essential for anyone curious about the life of Lewis. Or anyone who his a fan of his thought.

This book is a bout the life and conversion of Lewis, told as an autobiography, as opposed to an allegory as in "Pilgrim's Regress." It culminates with Lewis's conversion to Anglican Christianity:

"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling . . . the steady, unrelenting approach of Him who I so earnestly desired not to meet. . . I [finally] gave in and admitted that God was God, and I knelt a prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not see then what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the Divine humility will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?"

This book, however is not religious mumbo-jumbo, and is not just strictly a religious text, but it encompasses other aspects of Lewis's life: his experience as a son, a brother, a student, an intellectual freebooter, etc.

On a human level, this book has touched and resonated with me more than any other book I have read, outside of Scripture. I have experienced many of the same things Lewis had experienced. In a slightly different way, and in a different order, but there was enough of the essence of the events to harmonize with me. I almost felt that I was Lewis in a way.

Even if you are a non-Christian, non-believer, or a non-interested person, I recommend this book as part of one humans experience in life, as one slice of humanity!

This is C. S. Lewis's spiritual autobiography and it is a masterpiece. Lewis was raised in a somewhat nominal Christianity, which he threw off as a school-boy. But as Lewis says, "A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There were traps everywhere - 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and strategems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." And this book is Lewis's chronicle of God's strategems and nets and the surprises which eventually converted Lewis back to Christianity. Central to this process was Lewis's experience of joy, which he defines as "an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction." As a boy and as a man, Lewis was stabbed by this desire, yet never able to satisfy it. By a process of elimination, he came to realize that (as he says in another book) "if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." The desire led him to the Objective Other - the Absolute - Spirit. At first, Lewis viewed this Other as an impersonal and objective absolute. But, God strategically boxed him into a corner (Lewis uses the analogy of check-mate in a game of chess) where he was forced to acknowledge that this Other was God Himself, and beyond that, God enfleshed in Jesus Christ. Woven into the story are the events of Lewis's childhood, education, and intellectual development. Quite a lot of the discussion centers around his reading, from Beatrix Potter as a child, to Keats, Herbert, MacDonald, and Chesterton as a young adult. This is a fascinating book and one cannot quite hope to fully appreciate Lewis without reading it. I highly recommend it!

CS Lewis never ceases to amaze me with his sincerity and utter humility. His genuine goodness is clear in all his works, but even more so in this. Surprised by Joy is an autobiographical book in which Lewis relates the events of his early life--particularly those which led to his eventual return to Christianity. As usual, he is frank and very analytical of all that happened as he first lost his faith, and then found it again.
Lewis talks about many events which led him to question the existence of God, and he explores what may have motivated his way of thinking. His candid analysis of these events provides some wonderful insights. He also explains how he gradually was brought back into the fold of Christianity, and how he reluctantly embraced God once again as "the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."
Though this is an autobiography and strays considerably from the format of Lewis's theological works, there still is a significant amount of theology involved. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in theology, especially Christianity. For fans of CS Lewis, this is a must have!