Classic Book of the Month: Surprised by Oxford

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, October 3rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Our Classic Book of the Month for October. If you like the autobiography of C. S. Lewis titled Surprised by Joy, World reviewer Emily Whitten says this book might be right up your alley.

AUDIOBOOK: The walk to the college had been long, hot, and difficult. I traveled far in the wrong direction before even realizing it. 

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: That’s Nancy Peterson’s audiobook version of our Classic Book of the Month, Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber. It’s the story of then Carolyn Drake’s conversion to Christianity as a student of literature and philosophy in Oxford, England.

The book is set in the 1990s, just as Drake arrives at graduate school. That first day, she’s just as lost spiritually as she is physically. But we soon see God at work. She begins to read the Bible, and she studies great Christian authors like John Milton and John Donne. Even the orientation movie turns out to be Chariots of Fire—a film about Scottish missionary and Olympic gold medal winner Eric Liddell. She’s intrigued by his claim that he feels God’s pleasure when he runs.

AUDIOBOOK: I mean, what if this God presence that this runner guy feels is God moving through us and through everything we do? If so, why do we resist it? What if everything horrible that happens, from drive-by shootings to illness, is because we have broken this chain of love, and we don’t know how to put everything right again?

You can hear Drake wrestling with a vague idea of the fall, but it takes a while for Biblical ideas to sink in. That’s partially because of her non-Christian family background and her father’s abuse. Both made her skeptical of men in general as well as any kind of heavenly Father.

Enter a young Christian man nicknamed “TDH” or “Tall, Dark, and Handsome.” He listens to her stories of pain and fear, but he challenges her to look more deeply into the Bible’s claims about her sin and the offer of salvation in Christ. Here’s a clip from the new Surprised by Oxford movie trailer. And though that movie isn’t as good as the book, it does portray their spirited back and forth:

TRAILER: You wear this brave face, but inside you’re just as scared as everybody else. You do not know what I’ve been through. You pour over the words of dead people. But you don’t let yourself feel those same things.

If you like a good romance, this book is a great one—slow-simmering and God-honoring, with an emphasis on the couple’s intellectual and spiritual connection. But it’s more than that. Drake, who published under her married name, Weber, says this today of her 2009 memoir.

WEBER: I didn't write it to be a romance novel, but overall to really emphasize that our, you know, we're married already when we're, when we believe in Christ. I mean, right there is a fundamental marriage and, even if we're single and that's the relationship that all our other desires and wants and needs and questions have to come to, first and foremost.

You can see the ordering of those loves in a critical chapter of the book titled “The Ultimate Valentine.”

WEBER: It was a Valentine's Day student party and everybody there, as the Brits are saying, are snogging and sleeping with different people and, you know, partying and everything else. But you're seeing all of this and it just became sort of 3D of just how empty those things are.

When Drake gets back to her room, alone, she opens up her Bible and begins to read the first chapter of the book of John. It turns out to be a different kind of love letter than she was looking for.

AUDIOBOOK: I blinked again. Hard. The words on the page came into sharp focus. Then everything all of a sudden became very, very clear. I knew Jesus was who He said He was. Plain and simple and true and everlasting. I knew that I wanted to know Him. To know Him first and then to know Him better.

Today, Carolyn Weber holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Oxford University. She’s a homeschool mom, a wife, and a professor at New College Franklin. With such an academic background, you might expect her writing to be erudite—and it is. But she’s also down-to-earth, sharing simple, raw insights into her life as a daughter and friend. And that writing style has reader appeal outside of academia.

Christie Hart is an avid reader outside her work as Director of Elementary Ministries at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville. She says that Weber’s combination of romance and intellectual content is key.

HART: And I think that makes it more accessible for young women to read it too. You’re kinda hooked by the romance, but you’re also getting a lot of truth, and there’s a real romance there of God wooing her to himself.

Hart has seen the book benefit a wide variety of people in terms of their spiritual walk.

HART: If you’re a Christian, it can really build up your faith. If you’re not a Christian, it can help you ask some of those questions she was asking.

Readers should know that the book represents secular college life in a realistic but non-graphic way. There are no sex scenes, but characters are reported to have sex outside of marriage. There’s a gay character, and some characters drink to excess. Even Christian characters occasionally use bad language. If this book had a movie rating, it might be PG-13 for some of these elements. In terms of worldview, she entertains some ideas I wouldn’t today—for instance, in one scene she seeks comfort at the foot of a statue of Mary.

Even so, this remains one of the wisest books I’ve ever read. In C. S. Lewis’s autobiography, Surprised by Joy, Lewis wrote, “All joy reminds.” I hope our Classic Book of the Month, Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber will bring you joy—and remind you of God’s saving love toward even one sinner who repents.

AUDIOBOOK: How differently things turned out from what I initially expected to gain from Oxford University, the symbolic pinnacle of the ‘educational experience.’ As I aimed to become a teacher, God made me a student.

I’m Emily Whitten.

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