A Flickering Match

C.E.M. Joad (1891–1953) was an English philosopher and broadcasting personality, as famous as George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell in his day. Joad’s prominence came from popularizing philosophy on the The Brains Trust, a BBC favorite. His more than 75 books advanced his atheistic, socialistic and hedonistic views. But just in time he was given good cause to reconsider. He confronted the compelling arguments of C.S. Lewis when Joad was invited to appear at the Socratic Club at Oxford University, where Lewis was President. Shortly before his death at age 61, he told of his conversion in his last book, The Recovery of Belief. Of his failure to find satisfaction anywhere else, he wrote: “Trying to find happiness from this world is like trying to light up a dark room by lighting a succession of matches. You strike one, it flickers for a moment, and then it goes out. But when you find Jesus Christ, it’s as though the whole room’s suddenly flooded with light.”

Donate