Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

Rating:
Summary: A great book AFTER you've enjoyed other Lewis books.
Review: Not all of Lewis's experience will be interesting to the average reader. You have to be somewhat of a Lewis lover to fully appreciate this book about his gradual acceptance of Christianity. I greatly appreciated the book for its openness to mythology as the road that led Lewis to Christianity, where he believed he found the fulfillment of all he longed for in mythology. For Lewis, Christianity was the place where myth became fact. The book also provides an immense argument to support the importance of art and aesthetics, based on the divine role they played in this great man's life.

Rating:
Summary: A great book AFTER you've enjoyed other Lewis books.
Review: Not all of Lewis's experience will be interesting to the average reader. You have to be somewhat of a Lewis lover to fully appreciate this book about his walk toward Christianity. I greatly appreciated the book for its embrace of mythology as the road that led Lewis to Christianity, where he believed he found the fulfillment of all he longed for. For Lewis, Christianity was the place where myth became fact. The book also provides an immense argument to support the importance of art and aesthetics, based on the divine role they played in this great man's life. I've found it inspirational to my own writing and affirming of my interests.

Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: one of the best books by my fav author of all time. well worded, insightful, instructive, inspirational - how many more 'i' words do you need? please, take my word, and read this book.

Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: one of the best books by my fav author of all time. well worded, insightful, instructive, inspirational - how many more 'i' words do you need? please, take my word, and read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece Read this work of his first
Review: Owning all of C.S.Lewis' non-fiction works I believe this is the first book most people should own, simply because it shows his journey from being an atheist and a serious one at that, to becoming not only a Christian, but in many peoples opinion, including mine, the greatest Christian scholar on the twentieth century or many centuries. It is a book I recommend to any academia minded person who wants a literate and challenging work that lays out how a serious atheist and secular scholar can evolve into a scholar who also happens to be a Christian. Chapter fourteen titled Checkmate is where this really gets explained. The other interesting thing about this book is how it got me reading other works from the many people C. S. Lewis mentions as catalysts in his journey. People like George Macdonald, and G K Chesterton. Thus my home library has expanded a lot.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece Read this work of his first
Review: Owning all of C.S.Lewis' non-fiction works I believe this is the first book most people should own, simply because it shows his journey from being an atheist and a serious one at that, to becoming not only a Christian, but in many peoples opinion, including mine, the greatest Christian scholar on the twentieth century or many centuries. It is a book I recommend to any academia minded person who wants a literate and challenging work that lays out how a serious atheist and secular scholar can evolve into a scholar who also happens to be a Christian. Chapter fourteen titled Checkmate is where this really gets explained. The other interesting thing about this book is how it got me reading other works from the many people C. S. Lewis mentions as catalysts in his journey. People like George Macdonald, and G K Chesterton. Thus my home library has expanded a lot.

Rating:
Summary: A confession...not to be confused with confusion
Review: Recently having had the opportunity to also read confessions penned by Augustine and Tolstoy, I must say that, like Augustine, Lewis gets to the heart of the matter without getting lost in the Confusion that I consider the true title of Tolstoy's short autobiographical essay. While Augustine reveals the evolutionary development of this faith, however, be forewarned that Surprised by Joy does not seriously appear to be a true confession until the last two chapters, called Checkmate and The Beginning. Just do not get into the mindset that the reader can skip to these chapters without having first read the prior thirteen - everyone's life needs to be considered in context, including that of Lewis. Simply put, Suprised by Joy remarkably describes one individual's journey from Atheism to Theism to Christianity, without the distractions of the ancient world, and sometimes difficult language, found in Augustine.

Rating:
Summary: Charming spiritual autobiography
Review: Strictly speaking, this is a spiritual journey rather than a personal history, yet much biographical material goes into the telling. I enjoyed the book immensely and found Lewis's ever present sense of humor refreshing.

Rating:
Summary: Surprised by joy is a book for the Christian philosopher.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: THE UNIMAGINABLE POSSIBILITY OF JOY...
Review: Surprised By Joy is a moving and thought-provoking intellectual, and ultlmately (stemming from the transformation of the intellect over time) spiritual autobiography. Like most of Lewis's works it is an engrossing book written in envigorating and lucid prose. Of all the books coming out of the growing "Lewis industry" there are none that do a better job of biography than this short work by the man himself.

Lewis tells the story of his life up until he found true joy in following Jesus Christ. From his misty early memories of playing with his brother, to his time in school, Lewis gives his personal history a rigorous and reflective once-over. Along the way, he encounters many sign posts, all of which lead to his eventual encounter with Christ.

In school I once had a class on Christian Mythopoeic authors. We studied four: George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams at length. Each of us were given two huge projects on which our grades depended. Mine were to research and present on C.S. Lewis and Frederick Buechner.

I got to know the works by and about both men quite well.

Many Lewis biographers focus a lot of their time on Lewis's schooling experiences. This is probably because of their salacious "shock value." But focusing solely on those experiences without getting the point of what Lewis is saying in this book (as so many do) is a massive example of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

True, Lewis, like any autobiographer, has some axes to grind (and in my opinion is more than just in doing so), but he also has a most vital message to share:

Behind all of our longings, even our sufferings, is the unimaginable possibility of true, pure, radiant joy.

On another note, I found that Surprised By Joy is itself a great reading list for works in the "Northern" and mythopoeic fields. Lewis was nothing if not well read, and he shares his intelectual evolution (and the works involved) in this book.

I will leave you with a favorite quote of mine from this book. The set up, is that a former schoolmate of Lewis's (who became the Archbishop of Dublin) and Lewis are sitting together at the funeral of a horrid man who had once been their very abusive schoolmaster:

"Speaking of Oldee's death, I said to him, "Well, we shan't see him again."

"You mean," he answered with a grim smile, "we hope we shan't."

I give this book my full recommendation.