What can Lewis' journey from atheism to belief tell us about how and why we change our minds?

C.S. Lewis famously described himself as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England”. But an unpublished manuscript appears to reveal something extraordinary: Lewis may have misremembered when his conversion actually happened.

Lewis scholar and Episcopal priest Andrew Lazo joins Ruth Jackson to tell the remarkable story of Early Prose Joy - Lewis’ previously unpublished account of his journey from atheism to belief - and the moment he realised: “Lewis got it wrong!”

Yet, this is about much more than correcting a date. What really caused Lewis to abandon atheism? What role did grief, reason and desire play? Why did he keep rewriting the story of his conversion? And did Lewis eventually discover that what he had been searching for all along wasn’t actually joy, but love?

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Released on 29 Sep 2026