I had read this book before, so these are just some thoughts on listening later to the audiobook:
- There is surprisingly little on Christianity per se. It covers his early life through his conversion, but ends there. He first became a theist, and the book really focuses on that rather than his becoming a Christian next (as he notes). And as for the eponymous “joy,” he’s not saying that Christianity brought him joy, really, but that joy helps show there is a a god.
- Regarding his embrace of Christianity, he says that the most mature religions are Christianity and Hinduism, but that the latter is more a a mixture of paganism and philosophy than the supplanting of the former by the latter.
- He also mentions (twice) the fireside scene where the old atheist says, “Rum thing, you know — this dying god that Frazier discusses actually happened once, it seems” (that is, the historicity of the gospels is sound).
- He says his father’s death was irrelevant to his conversion (but the timing makes you wonder: see my notes on Lewis’s letters, elsewhere on this site).