Addison’s Walk
Addison’s Walk lies within the grounds of Magdalen College in Oxford. It runs from alongside New Buildings northwards between Long Meadow and the Fellow’s Garden until it reaches ‘Mesopotamia’, a narrow strip of land in the River Cherwell. The walk was originally named Water Walks for the river banks that it follows but was renamed after the English poet, playwright, and politician Joseph Addison (1672–1719), a Fellow of Magdalen College. A conversation between C.S. Lewis, Hugo Dyson (1896-1975), and J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) on Addison’s Walk in September 1931 leads to Lewis’s conversion to Christianity.
From atheism to theism
As a child, C.S. Lewis is baptised and visits St Mark’s Church in Belfast. But in his teens, he says goodbye to the Christian faith. During his time at Cherbourg House Preparatory School in Malvern, from January 1911 to July 1913, he rejects Christianity because he feels his prayers are not being heard. Between September 1914 and April 1917, Lewis studies privately with William Kirkpatrick (1848–1921) in Great Bookham to be tutored in preparation for the university. Kirkpatrick’s atheism influences the young Lewis, and his own begins to take shape. He carefully keeps it hidden, and on 6 December 1914, he is confirmed at St Mark’s Church. Nevertheless, his atheism continues to develop through the horrors he experiences in France during the First World War (1914–1918) and his intellectual development during his studies.
Thanks to many philosophical talks with his friend Owen Barfield (1898–1997), C.S. Lewis is intellectually driven to become a theist, a believer in God, by 1926. In his thinking, he cannot ignore the fact that God exists anymore. He can no longer intellectually deny that reality is ultimately not one seamless whole. That reality must have a ground or origin of a different order. This ground relates to the rest as Creator to creation. With this philosophical development come the powerful and moving experiences from his childhood of what Lewis calls ‘Joy’. His longing for joy makes him think this must be a desire for something outside himself.
In 1926, after a conversation with T.D. Weldon (1896–1958), a colleague and philosopher at Magdalen College, C.S. Lewis begins to study the Gospels. He finds that the available evidence in the Gospels themselves highly supports the Christian story. When he reads the book The Everlasting Man by the English writer and journalist G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936), he sees the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seems to make sense to him. In June 1930, Lewis gives in. He admits that God is God and kneels and prays. After that, he begins to visit Magdalen College Chapel and Holy Trinity Church in Oxford regularly. Lewis now believes in God but does not know how Christ fits into this.
Conversion to Christianity
On 19 September 1931, a conversation between C.S. Lewis, Hugo Dyson, and J.R.R. Tolkien about myth, truth, and Christianity leads to Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. On 19 September, Dyson, a lecturer and tutor in English at Reading University, comes over to spend the weekend with Lewis. At Magdalen College, they dine with Tolkien, Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University. Afterwards, they stroll along Addison’s Walk and discuss myths, particularly Lewis’s reaction to stories of dying gods and the sacrifice of Christ. Dyson and Tolkien remind Lewis how moved and impressed he is when reading of dying gods, as with Balder in Norse mythology. They encourage him to think of Christ’s sacrifice with the same sense of awe, accentuated by the fact that it actually happened. In Tolkien’s view, myths preserve something of God’s truth. The story of Christ is a true myth: a myth working on us like the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.
The final step of C.S. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity takes place on 28 September 1931 when he goes to Whipsnade Zoo, a few kilometres north of London, with his brother Warren (1895–1973). In the sidecar of Warren’s motorcycle, the final piece falls into place. When they reach the zoo, the thirty-two-year-old Lewis believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He has not received communion since his boyhood, but on Christmas Day 1931, Lewis attends Holy Trinity Church in Oxford and takes communion. Initially, he takes communion only at the great festivals like Christmas and Easter. Later, Lewis receives communion once a month, and from about 1948, once a week.
The Pilgrims Regress
C.S. Lewis tells about his conversion to Christianity in his book The Pilgrim’s Regress. An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason, and Romanticism, published in May 1933. It is an allusion to the book The Pilgrim’s Progress by the English preacher John Bunyan (1628–1688). Lewis writes his book during a two-week holiday in Ireland in August 1932. It is his first work of prose in an allegory style. The story is an allegorical account of Lewis’s return to God and the church after all the experiences, temptations, and philosophies he encountered in his life. He explains the elusive experience he calls ‘Joy’ and its role in his conversion. He tells about his search for Joy, for what is spiritually highest, and of the temptations of all the false joy he has met on his journey. Lewis realises that his experiences of longing for Joy had all along been surges of spiritual homesickness for heaven and longing for God.
Surprised by Joy
In September 1955, C.S. Lewis publishes the book Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. He has been working on it since 1948. It has taken so long to write because the pattern of his life becomes clearer as he reflects on it over time. The book is not a general autobiography, but Lewis tries to tell the story of his conversion. In that story, his earlier years are more important than his later life. In the book, Lewis describes how he is surprised by Joy, and through it by God. The book should be read for the light it throws on the nature of Joy and the role it played in Lewis’s conversion and life.
Sources
Walter Hooper, C.S. Lewis. Companion & Guide
Jeffrey Schultz & John West, The C.S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia