Review: Surprised by Agape by Justin Wiggins
Surprised by Agape is Justin Wiggins’s conversion story and tribute to C. S. Lewis, whose works significantly shaped the author’s worldview and with who he parallels his own transformation story with. Wiggins asserts that God used art and community to inform his experiences, question his worldview, and drive his quest for answers. Through community and “artistic storytelling,” Wiggins discovers the unconditional love of God. As a result, he aims to share his experiences with the hope that others may likewise find similarities with their own experiences.
Following an introduction, Wiggins divides his book into three parts. The first and shortest part, consisting of only two chapters, covers the author’s redemption story. In this section, Wiggins conveys his life before faith and how it gradually changed through the power of music, literature, and community. This section ends with an interlude in which the author segues into the following two parts of his book, where he covers the themes of agape love and sehnsucht (yearning) in the works of Lewis. Part 2, the most extended section covering six chapters, discusses the theme of agape in Lewis’ life and works. In this section, Wiggins pulls from both primary sources such as the writings of Lewis himself and secondary sources from Lewis scholar Colin Duriez. Throughout this second part, Wiggins shows how the love of God can be revealed in friendship, charity, literature, and the romantic love of others, and how Lewis himself came to understand God better through these means. In Part 3, Wiggins dives into the theme of deep yearning in the life of Lewis and how this yearning helped lead Lewis to faith. Wiggins writes that Lewis referred to this sehnsucht as “Joy,” and he defines it as “a longing that no amount of sex, love, money or earthly happiness can satisfy” (p.57). What Wiggins does well here is show how the works of Lewis, such as The Weight of Glory and Till We Have Faces exemplify this theme.
In Surprised by Agape, Wiggins reveals how the love of God changed his life through art and community and how these and themes of love and yearning propelled Lewis to faith and informed his writings. I would recommend Surprised by Agape to anyone interested in the power of community and literature to shape one’s worldview and those who enjoy personal conversion stories.
