Which C.S. Lewis autobiography recounts his journey toward Christian belief?

Surprised by Joy is the C.S. Lewis autobiography that recounts his journey toward Christian belief.

Published in 1955, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life describes Lewis’s childhood, education, intellectual development, service in the First World War, and movement from atheism toward Christianity. The title refers to Lewis’s idea of “Joy,” a powerful experience of longing or desire for something beyond ordinary satisfaction.

The book is an intellectual and spiritual autobiography rather than a complete account of Lewis’s entire life. It ends before his later public fame, marriage to Joy Davidman, and final years. Readers sometimes confuse it with A Grief Observed, which is a later work written after Davidman’s death and focuses on bereavement.

Lewis’s conversion was gradual. He returned to belief in God in 1930 and became a Christian in 1931. Surprised by Joy presents the literary and philosophical influences that contributed to this development, including George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton.