Which C.S. Lewis book records his journey back to Christianity?

Surprised by Joy records C.S. Lewis’s journey back to Christianity.

Published in 1955, Surprised by Joy is Lewis’s spiritual autobiography. It traces his intellectual and religious development from childhood through atheism and toward Christian belief. The title refers to “joy,” Lewis’s term for intense, often fleeting experiences of longing and wonder that he associated with literature, nature, and imagination.

Lewis became a theist in 1930 and returned to Christianity in 1931. His conversations with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson at Oxford helped him reconsider the relationship between myth, history, and Christian belief. The book describes those developments, although it does not provide a complete account of every event in his life.

Surprised by Joy is often confused with A Grief Observed, which concerns Lewis’s mourning after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. It is also distinct from Mere Christianity, a work of apologetics developed from wartime radio broadcasts. The autobiography’s final chapters discuss Lewis’s conversion and his evolving understanding of faith.