This, of course, is very similar to the conversion accounts of two other writers I admire—Sheldon Vanauken and C. S. Lewis. For both of these men, the surprising brilliance of Christian writers helped them come to faith and then adjust to being, unexpectedly and somewhat reluctantly, Christian themselves. But even more important was the fact that the Christianity that both of these men encountered (at Oxford, in both cases) was not scared of the world nor was it concerned with somehow one-upping the world. It was, rather, deeply at home in it, fascinated by it, and convinced that the truth of Christianity did not negate the truths they came to prior to conversion, but somehow enriched them.

Jake Meador on the tedium of worldview analysis.

This is one of the subtly important points of Lewis’s Surprised by Joy—that rather than being a distraction or something to be repented of, his pagan fascination with the aesthetic sensation he called Joy led him to faith. (My dissertation makes this point as well. I just wanted to say that.)