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Surprised by Joy
- C. S. Lewis Signature Classic
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Art & Literature
Non-member price: $13.26
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For centuries people have been tormented by one question above all: if God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain? And what of the suffering of animals, who neither deserve pain nor can be improved by it? The greatest Christian thinker of our time sets out to disentangle this knotty issue. With his signature wealth of compassion and insight, C. S. Lewis offers answers to these crucial questions and shares his hope and wisdom to help heal a world hungry for a true understanding of human nature.
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For centuries people have been tormented by one question above all: if God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain? And what of the suffering of animals, who neither deserve pain nor can be improved by it? The greatest Christian thinker of our time sets out to disentangle this knotty issue. With his signature wealth of compassion and insight, C. S. Lewis offers answers to these crucial questions and shares his hope and wisdom to help heal a world hungry for a true understanding of human nature.
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Can't anyone teach me how to pray?"" Millions of people today are asking the same question. There is a sense of the necessity of prayer - we have to pray. But how?' Prayer is central to Christian faith; indeed, as Timothy Keller notes in his introduction, it is the main way we experience deep change. Yet so many people struggle with prayer - a struggle that the author himself has shared. This wise and inspiring book is the fruit of those struggles, offering a real and glorious vision of what it can mean to seek God in prayer.
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Two quotients analyze our minds and emotions: IQ and EQ. But Kris Vallotton believes we are ignoring a deeper dimension - spiritual intelligence. Because believers have the mind of Christ through the Holy Spirit, we have the capacity for brilliance. God invites us to embark on a journey of discovery as he reveals mysteries and helps us bring our perspective in line with his - transforming our understanding and endowing us with spiritual intelligence.
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Every human should hear this.
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The church used to be recognised as a force for good, but this is changing rapidly. Christians are now often seen as the bad guys, losing both respect and influence. In our post-Christian culture, how do we offer the gospel to those around us who view it as not only wrong but possibly dangerous? And how do we ensure that the secular worldview does not entice us away with its constant barrage, online and elsewhere, of messages about self-determinism?
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A masterpiece of satire, this classic has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to "Our Father Below". At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the worldly-wise old Devil to his nephew, Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man.
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top notch
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An intelligent, intellectually rigorous examination of why the Christian faith still makes sense in an age of scepticism. As the pastor of an inner-city church in New York City, Timothy Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced doubts sceptics bring to his church as well as the most important reasons for faith. In The Reason for God, he addresses each doubt and explains each reason.
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I hated the book and the author
- By sam on 11-09-2020
Publisher's Summary
For many years an atheist, C. S. Lewis vividly describes the spiritual quest that convinced him of the truth and reality of Christianity, in his famous autobiography.
"In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God...perhaps the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." Thus Lewis describes memorably the crisis of his conversion.
Surprised by Joy reveals both that crisis and its momentous conclusion that would determine the shape of Lewis' entire life.
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- Alyssa
- 22-08-2018
Great but quality not great
Loved hearing Lewis’ story. Audio sounded as if it was skipping a lot so felt like I was missing chunks of story. Not good quality. I would try another version. Returning this one.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 30-09-2019
A terrific autobiography
The narrator does a terrific job bringing this autobiography to life.
I was expecting the book to be more about the shift Lewis made from being an atheist to a Christian (as the subtitle indicates). Sure, this is certainly how the book ends with its closing chapters. Nevertheless, Lewis's conversion and the intellectual and personal experiences that led to this are much food for thought, and helped me to better clarify my own experience with faith and its relationship to life/ academia.
1 person found this helpful
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- Carlin
- 06-09-2018
Outstanding. Glorious.
Loved it. Highly recommend it. His pursuit of joy, his insight into it, and discovery of its source in God is very compelling and very relatable.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 15-01-2018
Surprisingly good!
Intriguing and poignant story, excellently narrated. Recommend for any deeper thinkers and those who appreciate C.S. Lewis's work.
1 person found this helpful
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- Terry
- 21-11-2020
Suprised by Joy suprised by truth
I loved every minute the story held me captive the reader perfect for the story
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- Bo
- 25-10-2020
surprised it want about joy.
I may have missed something, but k feel this was more about CS Lewis' abuse in schools and kind of missed where the joy part came in. I was hoping for some string philosophy, but instead got a stream of events regarding childhood abuse.
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- Kerry
- 22-03-2017
A lot to digest
I enjoyed listening to tge story of Lewis's conversion and I thought it was well read. But I found it difficult to digest in this format. I would have got more out of it if I had read it myself.
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- Georget
- 09-08-2018
Joy ful surprise
Now that I come to write this review i find i can't remember how i found this book or why I decided to read it. I am glad that I did and I will again. At times it was a little difficult, not the writing but following a description of a time and class i know nothing about. The quotes in german,french,Latin and Greek although lost on me, didn't really spoil the story. I feel the narrator a perfect choice, his voice and tone are suitable to the era, also his emotion in the reading at times made me feel i was listening to an old radio broadcast of c.s. Lewis himself. A book I'll keep in my library to listen again and again to find the parts i missed this time.
10 people found this helpful
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- Lawrence D.
- 24-11-2017
A genuine pleasure to read .
CS Lewis' books are a genuine pleasure to read and this reader is simply outstanding. Highly recommended.
5 people found this helpful
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- Fraser Jeremy Clark
- 05-08-2020
Hoped for more
Appears that a boyhood obsession with Animal Land becomes in adulthood Narnia. Not fully biography yet glimpses of background to Lewis becoming a Christian, not a Damascene event but logical reasoning I hoped for more on his Christian life a sense of rushed final chapters. Good narrative voice.
3 people found this helpful
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- katya belaia
- 09-01-2019
Beautiful
impossible to put down, captivating, illuminating. i want to listen to it over again straight away.
3 people found this helpful
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- JDS
- 25-02-2020
An insightful book into the conversion of CS Lewis
Great narrator, love CS Lewis! A really insightful book into his conversion to Christianity. Would recommend.
2 people found this helpful
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- ian naftel
- 06-07-2020
Enjoyed it very much
It is a long book but was must enjoyable.
The story is full of ups and downs.
Having not read any of C S Lewis before I am keen to read some more of his books
1 person found this helpful
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- Greg Gauthier
- 20-02-2020
Fantastic reading, amazing work.
The reader was amazing and Lewis' story of himself was riveting and inspiring. Highly recommended.
1 person found this helpful
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- neil
- 15-04-2018
good insight on a journey of discovery.
lewis' knowledge and intellect shines through the words. a personal journey and historical document in one.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 28-01-2019
An interesting read but weighted strangely
Interesting book and enjoy all of CS Lewis's so far, however I felt the first half dragged on and the second could have been drawn out longer than it was
2 people found this helpful
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- Mr. Christen J. Forster
- 17-03-2021
Beautiful words, beautiful truth.
Lewis's life experiences are so different from my own, his context is alien, but the inner journey presented so many parallels with my own it was joyfully surprising!
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