• Surprised By Joy Online Pdf
• Surprised By Joy Pdf Free Download For Pc

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

Author	C. S. Lewis
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Autobiography
Publisher	Geoffrey Bles (UK) Harcourt Brace (US)
Publication date	1955
Media type	Paperback
Pages	252
OCLC	28289338

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life is a partial autobiography published by C. S. Lewis in 1955. Specifically, the book describes the author's conversion to Christianity which had taken place 24 years earlier.^[1]

Overview[edit]

Surprised by joy In his book Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, 6 C. Lewis tells the story of his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ. It is a very moving book, in which we see the constant interplay between Lewis’s intuition and experience, on the one hand, and his reason and intellect, on the other. Free download or read online Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life pdf (ePUB) book. The first edition of this novel was published in 1955, and was written by C.S. In “Surprised by Joy,” Lewis tells the story of of his life, from his mother’s death to a series of soulless boarding schools to his final transformation into a Christian. A free online. Free PDF Download Books by C. For many years an atheist, C. Lewis vividly describes the spiritual quest that convinced him of the truth and reality of Christianity, in his famous autobiog.

Lewis' purpose in writing was not primarily historical. His aim was instead to identify and describe the events surrounding his accidental discovery of and consequent search for the phenomenon he labeled 'Joy', his best translation of the idea of Sehnsucht (German: longing). This Joy was so intense for something so good and so high up it could not be explained with words. He is struck with 'stabs of joy' throughout his life.

Overall, the book contains less detail concerning specific events than a typical autobiography, although it is not devoid of information about his life. Lewis recounts and remembers his early years with a measure of amusement sometimes mixed with pain. However, while he does describe his life, the principal theme of the book is Joy as he defined it for his own purpose.

Lewis ultimately discovers the true nature and purpose of Joy and its place in his own life. The book's last two chapters cover the end of his search as he makes the leap from atheism to theism and then from theism to Christianity and, as a result, he realizes that Joy is like a 'signpost' to those lost in the woods, pointing the way, and that its appearance is not as important 'when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles.'^[2]

Allusions of title[edit]

Surprised by Joy is an allusion to William Wordsworth's poem, 'Surprised By Joy — Impatient As The Wind', relating an incident when Wordsworth forgot the death of his beloved daughter:^{[citation needed]}

Surprised by joy — impatient as the Wind
I turned to share the transport — Oh! with whom
But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind —
But how could I forget thee? Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind
To my most grievous loss? — That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,
Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.

The book has no connection with Lewis' unexpected marriage in later life to Joy Gresham. This marriage occurred long after the period described, though not long after the book was published. Lewis' friends and contemporaries were not slow to notice the coincidence, frequently remarking that Lewis had really been 'Surprised by Joy'.^[3]

References[edit]

1. ^'An Outline of the Life of C. S. Lewis'. Into the Wardrobe – a C. S. Lewis website. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
2. ^Surprised by Joy
3. ^Lancelyn Green, Roger and Hooper, Walter (2002). C.S.Lewis: A Biography, p. 330. HarperCollins, London. ISBN0-00-628164-8.

External links[edit]

• Surprised by Joy: The shape of my early life at Faded Page (Canada)
• Surprised by Joy. (Canadian public domain Ebook)

Surprised By Joy Online Pdf

Surprised By Joy Pdf Free Download For Pc

'A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere . . . God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.' This book is not an autobiography. It is not a confession. It is, however, certainly one of the most beautiful and insightful accounts of a person coming to faith. Here, C.S. Lewis takes us from his childhood in Belfast through the loss of his mother, to boarding school and a youthful atheism in England, to the trenches of World War I, and then to Oxford, where he studied, read, and, ultimately, reasoned his way back to God. It is perhaps this aspect of Surprised by Joy that we—believers and nonbelievers—find most compelling and meaningful; Lewis was searching for joy, for an elusive and momentary sensation of glorious yearning, but he found it, and spiritual life, through the use of reason. In this highly personal, thoughtful, intelligent memoir, Lewis guides us toward joy and toward the surprise that awaits anyone who seeks a life beyond the expected. 'Lewis tempered his logic with a love for beauty, wonder, and magic . . . He speaks to us with all the power and life-changing force of a Plato, a Dante, and a Bunyan.'—Christianity Today 'The tension of these final chapters holds the interest like the close of a thriller.'—Times Literary Supplement C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis (1898–1963), one of the great writers of the twentieth century, also continues to be one of our most influential Christian thinkers. He wrote more than thirty books, both popular and scholarly, including The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Screwtape Letters, The Four Loves, Mere Christianity, and Till We Have Faces.