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Title: Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C.S. Lewis ISBN: 0-15-687011-8 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 23 March, 1966 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (35 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Masterpiece: One Man's Journey to God
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: The auto-biography of Believers.
Comment: "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.
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: A disappointment, though not without interest. Lewis's purpose is to tell the story of his conversion from atheism to Christianity. But there is little here to challenge or even interest the open-minded atheist. It seems to me that Lewis converted largely for emotional reasons, apparently because he believed in some kind of Hegelian Absolute. The last two chapters are so vague and poetic (or perhaps poetically motivated...?) as to be very tough to read when trying to find out why he believes and what relevance his conversion might have to me. I never really got clear answers to these questions. Lewis is always readable, but this was disappointing on intellectual grounds (which is true of all his apologetics).
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Title: The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis ISBN: 0156329301 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 29 September, 1971 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060652926 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060652969 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060653205 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 20 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060652381 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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