Introduction to Joy Davidman's Sermon "Chosen for What?"

Abstract

My treasure hunt began as I was reading through Abigail Santamaria’s delightful biography of Joy Davidman. I found myself on page 300. Joy was living in England with her boys. She was struggling to make ends meet and was helping C.S. Lewis with his correspondence. Around the time of their civil marriage on April 23, 1956, Santamaria writes that “Joy was asked to speak at a London Church, addressing ‘The Problem of the Christian Jew.’” The next paragraph commented on a lecture she gave at Oxford and then many more ordinary details of her life. I was stunned: no footnote, no explanation, and no obvious place to find this sermon.

I was seized with an insatiable curiosity about this sermon and its content. I emailed Santamaria as well as Joy’s son, Douglas Gresham. I also reached out to several C.S. Lewis scholars associated with every Lewis Society I could think of. Most had heard of the sermon, but none of them had read it. The consensus was that if the sermon was anywhere, it was at the Wade Center. ...