"SURPRISED BY JOY": JOY IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND IN CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2004 by Howard, David M Jr

He did learn (by experience, apparently) that sexual desire and satisfaction did not bring "Joy"; it was pleasure. he writes, "Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy."25 And, during these years, he became a thoroughgoing rationalist whose world "was free from the Christian God."26

In his university years and afterwards, in his twenties, Lewis gradually was exposed to writers who opened his mind to the Transcendent again, and, in telling of this phase, Lewis titles one of his chapters "Check" (as in a chess game, signaling impending victory). he found that "Magic" in the works of Yeats and others was a great attraction, a possible source of "Joy," but, in the end, he realized that it was just as irrelevant to "Joy" as Eros had been. he discovered the writings of George MacDonald, wherein he saw "Holiness," which embodied "Joy" in some way. he writes that "never had the wind of Joy blowing through any story been less separable from the story itself."27 Lewis's intellectual options gradually narrowed as he read and discussed; he found himself forced by the sheer logic in books he read and people with whom he associated to acknowledge the very real possibility of a God. He did not experience "Joy" very much in these years of searching; he labeled it "aesthetic experience" and talked much about it, but did not experience it much.28

One aspect of Lewis's journey that I find the most compelling and moving is his encounter with the philosopher Samuel Alexander and his book Space, Time, and Deity.29 Alexander speaks of "enjoyment" and "contemplation." For Alexander, "enjoyment" is about a process and "contemplation" is about an object.30 So, as Lewis puts it (explaining Alexander), "When you see a table you 'enjoy' the act of seeing and 'contemplate' the table. Later, if you took up Optics and thought about seeing itself, you would be contemplating the seeing and enjoying the thought."31 This discovery had a great impact upon Lewis. "It seemed to me self-evident that one essential property of love, hate, fear, hope, or desire was attention to their object. To cease thinking about or attending to the woman is, so far, to cease loving; to cease thinking about or attending to the dreaded thing is, so far, to cease being afraid. But to attend to your own love or fear is to cease attending to the loved or dreaded object. In other words the enjoyment and the contemplation of our inner activities are incompatible. You cannot hope and also think about hoping at the same moment."32

Finally, in a chapter entitled "Checkmate," Lewis writes: "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?"38