Surprised by Joy: A Reflection on the Formative Years of My Life

Richard Deitering: C.S. Lewis shares his journey from atheism and being a materialist to that of a believer in God followed to his belief in Christ, it is an amazing journey he shares with his readers. I have read a few pages from the text at the beginning of every class and my students will not let me forget, they look forward to it every day. I could argue, that in today's world that "Surprised by Joy" is more relevant for today than any other of Lewis' great writings and should be in every library. It is a must read !

United States on Nov 22, 2023

Littlebird||BytheBushel: I purchased this copy for a graduation gift for a student headed to college. Lewis is timeless for both believer and non-believer- for he was both at different seasons of his life. I love this series of artwork, the feel of the book, print is perfect reading. Perfect was to ‘meet’ the great C. S. Lewis.

United States on Nov 11, 2023

non disclosure: But I still powered through and really enjoyed hearing how this brilliant mind went from atheist to theist, then to Christianity. The title was an odd choice to me.

United States on Sep 25, 2023

CJ: Super indico essa autobiografia de C.S. Lewis. O acabamento do livro é muito bom também.

Brazil on Sep 08, 2023

Jon Dixon: For the Lewis fan who wished to know his background, this gives some details. Biographies written by others may be better. For the fan of Mere Christianity, looking for its back story, this also gives some context. However, the story is to long in the some places, and to short in others. I finished without holding in my mind what I wished for. I suspect Lewis intended this result.

Canada on Aug 19, 2022

Penguin: I like reading but I choose my books to read on their individual merits. There has never been an author whose work I will read indiscriminately, and in turn I rarely read several works by the same author. But C. S. Lewis is the exception. He is the first and only author so far that I deliberately go out of my way to collect the books he has written, and that there is an urge to read them all! Among his books that I have read so far, "Till we have faces" was the one which impressed upon me most. It is a book that you won't ever forget, so deep that you feel you have not quite grasped all its meaning in the first read, and so gripping is Lewis' writing that it is itself an experience just to read through the book and learn what captivation really means.

It is the first time that my admiration for some literary work has aroused my interest in the author himself. This was why I picked up Surprised by Joy.

This is by no means an easy book to read because Lewis was a scholar and an intellect. His path to Christianity took on the route of rationality, dialectics and philosophy. He came to become a Theist because he realised that Atheism was unattainable. He saw how atheism...

United Kingdom on May 29, 2013

spencer: "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God..."

"I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did...it was...like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake."

For a long time I've been fascinated by the person, C.S. Lewis. What caused him to be the way he is?

...to write the Chronicles of Narnia, a best-selling children's fantasy; The Screw-tape Letters, a dialogue; Mere Christianity, a layman's apologetic; The Space Trilogy, a science-fiction; The Abolition of Man, a short treatise; Till We Have Faces, a mythology; Reflections on the Psalms, a commentary; The Pilgrim's Regress, an allegory; The Great Divorce, a novella; and now--Surprised by Joy, an autobiography!

Can you say "prolific"? I haven't even scratched the surface. If we complied C.S. Lewis' diary, letters, poems, and essays, not to mention his scholarly work on Medieval Renaissance literature, and his reflections on love, evil, pain, and theology than we've got a truck load of sheer writing masterpieces. Few...

United States on Jan 30, 2013

fragmentage: In dieser Autobiographie, die rund die erste Hälfte seines Lebens umfasst, beschreibt C.S. Lewis, einst erklärter Atheist, seinen langen Weg (zurück) zum Christentum. Der sehr persönliche Glaubensfindungsprozess, zieht sich unaufdringlich wie ein roter Faden durch den spannenden Lebensbericht des großen britischen Intellektuellen, dessen Liebe zu Geschichten und Literatur ihn seit frühester Kindheit geprägt hatte. So wird die Biographie auch zu einer wunderbaren Homage an die großen Klassiker, auf die er immer wieder Bezug nimmt und deren Einfluss auf unterschiedliche Lebensabschnitte er betont. So dicht und anspruchsvoll schreibt er, dass man sich einlesen und Zeit lassen muss, um die vielschichtigen Inhalte wirklich aufnehmen zu können. Mehr noch: Eigentlich müsste man sich hinsetzen und eine Literaturliste erstellen, in der Hoffnung, sich mit der Zeit wenigstens in der Quantität der gelesenen Werke teilweise an das Genie des Autors annähern zu können.

Ich habe dieses Buch zur Hand genommen, um mich in einem schweren Lebensabschnitt von den Erfahrungen dieses großen Helden ermutigen zu lassen. Dass C.S. Lewis' Leben alles andere als einfach war, wusste ich,...

Germany on Jan 05, 2013

SloMo: Surprised by Joy is a prerequisite if one is to experience the maximum benefit of C.S. Lewis' apologetic works. That is, while one might not actually, and perhaps should not, read Surprised by Joy before some of his other titles it will certainly provide the reader with a new appreciation of Lewis' perspective. Throughout his life, as it is evident in his writing, Lewis returns time and again to face his own struggles, those questions born of his own thoughts, to explain and defend Christianity. As it might be imagined, some of the toughest questions that he ever presented were first shaped into a fit argument while he was confident that Christianity could not possibly be reality. Within this work, Lewis brings these difficulties to light, as well as his experiences which justified his thoughts at any given time and the thoughts which accompanied these experiences.

The education, thoughts, and experiences of Lewis' early life are valuable enough in themselves with regard to an understanding of his adult conviction. However, it is also seen, after reading this work, that it was not only the Christian conviction which became finely tuned in his adulthood. Those difficulties...

United States on Apr 12, 2008

Normann Aaboe Nielsen: I came to this book with the knowledge that C.S.Lewis regarded himself as a sinner against God and a heretic until he was re-christianized and again became devote. This book should tell me that story. - But although not even the slightest sin can be acceptable in the eyes of God if you do not repent I must say that I felt that Lewis perhaps sinned more in terms of almost bragging about the lesser sins...
Well, perhaps not. But the most important sin referred to in the book is that Lewis was indifferent of Christ. That is of course a major problem and one that the Scriptures is dead set against. The JOY that Lewis refers to is what is different from indifference. JOY is the Holy Spirit coming to you at a most unexpected time. If you feel JOY then you feel the touch of God. That is what Lewis want us to see in the book and that is what was missing from him when he was an atheist. He did not feel JOY.
That said - and said loudly, for that should be known as the books theme - I was disappointed with the book. Vanity in young boy's dressing is not a major sin - it is a misunderstanding, but Lewis thinks of it as a SIN and that is boring. We know from books like "The Inklings"...

United Kingdom on Nov 08, 2002