Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir
    Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir
    Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir
    Ebook473 pages65 hours

    Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir

    By Carolyn Weber

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    When Carolyn Weber set out to study Romantic literature at Oxford University, she didn't give much thought to God or spiritual matters—but over the course of her studies she encountered the Jesus of the Bible and her world turned upside down. Surprised by Oxford chronicles her conversion experience with wit, humor, and insight into how becoming a Christian changed her.

    Carolyn Weber arrives at Oxford a feminist from a loving but broken family, suspicious of men and intellectually hostile to all things religious. As she grapples with her God-shaped void alongside the friends, classmates, and professors she meets, she tackles big questions in search of truth, love, and a life that matters.

    From issues of fatherhood, feminism, doubt, doctrine, and love, Weber explores the intricacies of coming to faith with an aching honesty and insight echoing that of the poets and writers she studied. Surprised by Oxford is:

    • The witty memoir of a skeptical agnostic who comes to a dynamic personal faith in God
    • Rich with illustration and literary references
    • Gritty, humorous, and spiritually perceptive
    • An inside look at Oxford University

    Weber eloquently describes a journey many of us have embarked upon, grappling with tough questions and doubts about the meaning of faith—and ultimately finding it in the most unlikely of places.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateFeb 4, 2013
    ISBN9780849949319
    Author

    Carolyn Weber

    Carolyn Weber holds her BA from the University of Western Ontario and her M.Phil and D.Phil degrees from Oxford University. She has been Associate Professor of Romantic Literature at Seattle University; she has also taught at Westmont College, University of San Francisco and Oxford University. Carolyn and her husband share the joy of parenting three spirited children in Santa Barbara, CA and London, Canada.  Find her online at www.pressingsave.com.

    Related to Surprised by Oxford

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Andrew Peterson

      Dec 1, 2019

      Andrew Peterson
      2 min read

    • Article

      In Celtic Cross Country

      Oct 17, 2019

      In Celtic Cross Country
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Friend, Tim Keller

      May 21, 2023

      My Friend, Tim Keller
      8 min read

    • Article

      From Our Readers

      Apr 9, 2024

      My wife gave me a subscription to Archaeology for Christmas and I wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your magazine. When I was much younger, I dreamed of being an archaeologist and wrote this in my eighth-grade jobs paper: “Archaeology is a science

      2 min read

    • Article

      An Apex of Babble

      Mar 6, 2019

      An Apex of Babble
      13 min read

    • Article

      Sexism Killed My Love for Philosophy Then Mary Astell Brought It Back

      Aug 31, 2017

      In 2004, I spent many hours walking the dirt paths of the Driftless Area, an undulating region in the Midwest left untouched by glaciers from Earth’s ice ages. In some parts the cracked earth exhales a cool air generated by underground ice. It’s a re

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Uneasy Yoke

      Sep 12, 2018

      The Uneasy Yoke
      5 min read

    • Article

      Living The Literary Life

      Jan 27, 2020

      Living The Literary Life
      5 min read

    • Article

      Blood Ritual

      Jun 5, 2023

      Blood Ritual
      20 min read

    • Article

      Writing From The Edge

      May 1, 2019

      One outreaches language in poetry when the inseeing elements of consciousness ask the unseen of life to come forward. My aim has been to unseat what we assume about time, about the verities of love and death, of the consciousness of those other senti

      9 min read

    • Article

      Need To Know

      Oct 4, 2020

      We learn from books, which suggests authors are wiser than readers. This is clearly false, yet we at least entertain the notion every time we pick up a book. The extreme example of this paternalistic relationship is the self-help book, where readers,

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Most American Religion

      Dec 16, 2020

      The Most American Religion
      31 min read

    • Article

      WALKING in THE LIGHT

      Oct 20, 2019

      WALKING in THE LIGHT
      10 min read

    • Article

      Summers Of Urchins And Love

      Jul 29, 2019

      Summers Of Urchins And Love
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Sage of Narnia

      Nov 15, 2023

      The Sage of Narnia
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Gift of Words

      Feb 12, 2021

      St. Louisan Nancy Carver has a talent for making history come alive on the written page. Thanks to her insatiable sense of curiosity and deep research talents, Carver includes details and stories previously unpublished in nonfiction works to captivat

      2 min read

    • Article

      From Our Readers

      Dec 5, 2019

      “Searching for the Witches’ Tower” (November/December 2019) rightly identifies the role of King James I in promoting the eradication of witchcraft in seventeenth-century England, but does not mention the impact of the King James Version of the Hebrew

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Surprised by Oxford

    4/5

    68 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A well-written, insightful, and balanced work surrounding coming to faith and wrestling with the realities of faith. Weber paints pictures with words that make the story come beautifully alive.
    • 5/5
      In her beautifully written spiritual memoir Surprised by Oxford, Carolyn Weber makes us privy to three romances.

      She takes us with her as she falls in love with Oxford—the city and the school.

      We experience the ups and downs of her relationship with TDH (tall, dark and handsome) which begins when he patiently answers the many questions of this atheistic Canadian scholarship student. Along the way he poses a few questions of his own.

      Finally, we follow "Caro’s" meandering journey toward Jesus, from sneaking into the back of a cathedral to read a pew Bible, to a public baptism in the Thames River.

      Weber’s literary background makes this a book rich in quotes and allusions to literature classics like John Donne and George Herbert. But she's no cultural recluse and so pop culture wisdom, like U2 lyrics, find a place as well.

      Her keen intelligence combined with feminist leanings informs and directs the apologetic narrative as she grapples with questions she needs to have answered before she will put her faith in any dogma or deity.

      Her authenticity and warm spirit shine through all over the place as she recounts memories of life in her Canadian home and Oxford dorm conversations, pub nights, and outings with fellow students and professors.

      I found Surprised by Oxford an altogether enjoyable read and am thrilled that it won the Grace Irwin Prize as the best Canadian Christian book published in 2013.

      Surprised by Oxford is part of my own Kindle collection
    • 1/5
      She worships Mary, not Jesus. A masterpiece of literature, A Masterpiece of Heresy.

      "This virgin who gave me my "mojo", who gave me my God grove for which I had been built"
      " I looked at the statute of Mary, and she looked back. As I sat there, just the two of us, it occurred me: all for which she had labored ..."
      "For some reason, I felt more comfortable talking to Mary about this."
      "... until I bared all that had happened to my soul with Mary that night."
      "... Mary's chimed midnight [...] I stayed up all night in prayer, in awe, and in reverence.


      There is one guarantee for those who finish this book, you will never forget it. It is certainly not as captivating as Francine River's Voice in the Wind, but it stands out for its high art of writing. She is definitely a master in this area and her writing style is superb. It is more, in combination with an excellent reader of the audiobook, the first third of the book is excellent in many areas.

      But here it ends.

      I do not know why most problematic books which I have read, follow as similar pattern, initially tame and outmost diplomatic, rarely any questionable quotations or theology. Is it the publishers who assume that most people read only half of a book and therefore push the authors to tidy it up? Or is it Satan disguised as the Angel of Light, intriguing us and once we are on the hook, to drop all the unholy bombs? In this case the latter is probably true. The author is a false teacher and many elements of the book indicate that she is fully aware of her misleading.

      She felt at one point in the book the need to state that her searching is for a non-denominational church, but this is certainly a distraction, as the book is deeply saturated with Anglican and Catholic doctrine, authors and rituals. The claim that she converted at Oxford to Christianity, is spurious at best, probably false to be frank. She is much rather a JESUIT, based on her specific endorsement of Jesuit personalities and books (see below).

      "... my friend Angie, a fellow scholarship student and a devout Catholic with Puerto Rican roots, likes to remind me ... we live in intimate relationship with each other and with the saints, we understand the community of intercession".

      "Grace means you get to light your candle on the top rung. So that is what I did for the first time ever, this night. And that is where I have lit it ever since ..."

      - Several interviews to Catholic outlets after the book was written.

      - Previous teaching function at St Peter's College (Anglican).

      - Twitter comment Aug 10, 2022: "Thank you Jessica! Sorry for delay - I've been away! But I do find Pope always a good place to return to ;)"

      - Her '10 Of My All Time Favorites' on Goodreads includes: 'Hearts on Fire: Praying with JESUITS'

      - Her conversion story on St. Valentines day seems too mechanical, and many details of this and countless other passages are obviously made up, as she at least indicates at the beginning of the book.

      - Very strange comments after having visited the memorial of the Christian martyrs Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer: "What a strange place for a memorial." [...] I turned to Dr. Restell and asked, "Why does religion have to get so ugly, even among sects of practically the same creed?"

      - She namely described Catholicism and Protestantism as 'sects of the same kind'.

      - She says that the latin mass is simply beautiful and that it is just 'a different service style'.
      "... Mass in Latin. It's so beautiful, I agree, but no one can understand it. Different generations flock to different service styles."

      - She prefers to talk to Mary, what appears to imply that she prefers Mary to Jesus, especially given the fact that she had problems to pray to God, even after her conversion.

      - Her feminism is obviously not cured through her 'conversion', as her teaching as a female pastor and several other passages of the book show. She also endorses Kathleen Norris, who is also a strong feminist and of the same spiritual walk.

      - She claimed out of the blue and without necessity, that Jesus went down to hell while He was in the grave.

      - Several profanities (bs in long form appears at least 3 times in the book), even after her conversion

      - One of her best friends was attracted to the same s*x, she hang out with him after her conversion and did nothing to convert him. She makes it appear that it is just the most normal thing in the world to hang out and to make primitive jokes how she was out of his reach.

      - Between her conversion and her baptism, she had her fortune told and did not warn of this practise at all: "Later, somewhere between watching a snake charmer and getting my fortune told, I began to succumb to the sensory overload. I'm ready to call it a night ..."


      ENDORSEMENTS

      - She builds her entire book and inspiration upon, and heavily endorses the highly problematic teachers John Milton (Paradise Lost) and C.S. Lewis (believed in purgatory; Tao is the highest morality; rejected biblical inerrancy; theistic evolutionist; considered Hindu, Buddhist and Muslims as brothers in Christ). She even attended CS Lewis Society meetings, endorsed several of his books by name and uses terms such as 'Wordsworth' and his 'Law of Undulation', as if everyone would know what she is talking about ...

      - She endorsed St. Ignatius and specifically the fact that he does belong to the JESUITS.

      - She endorsed Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (French JESUIT priest, Darwinian, father of transhumanism) and Anthony de Mello (JESUIT priest)

      - She quotes Brennan Manning (Catholic priest), Francis Thompson (English poet and Catholic mystic), Teresa de Avila (Key figure of Catholic and Christian Mysticism, First female Doctor of the Catholic church, levitated), John of the Cross (JESUIT, mentored by Teresa de Avila), Thomas Merton (Universalism, 'spark of the divine', student of Zen master and Buddhist, used the terms God/Krishna/Tao interchangeably), Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Anglican), Sheldon Vanauken (Anglican, co-author CS Lewis), Mother Teresa (a fraud, direct enabler of sexual abuser and JESUIT priest Donald McGuire) and endorses even Jerome with the title 'saint', although it is well known that he is responsible as Catholic doctor and secretary to the Pope for the perversion of our Old Testament (+ Mary's perpetual virginity, invoking the saints, befriended with the great antichrist Augustine, who is of course also mentioned in the book).

      - She repeatedly endorses Tolkien and treats his teachings just as ordinary part of Christianity.
    • 4/5
      Carolyn Weber’s Surprised by Oxford is a window into the thoughts of a progressive literature student as she considers, and then accepts, the Christian worldview. One of this book’s greatest strengths is its ability to point out one of my greatest weaknesses: my ignorance of poetry and literature. Weber begins each chapter with a snippet of poetry appropriate to the plot of her story, and allusions to classic literature are found on almost every page. I recognized the names of most of the authors, but found my knowledge of the world’s best writing to be quite pitiful.Weber tells her intimate story of arriving at Oxford as a very devout feminist man-hater to continue her education in English literature. She then meets a man who challenges every horrible male stereotype she has absorbed into her mind. He is kind, selfless, confident, protective, knowledgeable, intelligent, honest, and ..... a Christian. Weber takes her readers through her confusion as she tries to explain how this man could so boldly defy her tightly-held beliefs about “What men are like”, and “What Christians are like.” This leads her into a quest to investigate the Bible and determine if it can explain the biggest questions of life.Weber gives her readers a look into the mind of an English major. She thinks about theology and spirituality very differently from many others. This insight is very valuable to those of us who do not see the world through the same lenses. On the lighter side, since this book was written by a literature student, and most of the main characters are also literature students, this book may set a new world record for “Most Metaphors Per Page.” Congratulations, Ms. Weber.
    • 5/5
      Memoirs are an increasingly popular form. Especially since Donald Miller, the memoir seems to have found a new life by showing how a person found God. In many ways, this is just an updating of the traditional testimony that has been, and in some churches still is, a common part of the church liturgy. I have read a lot of memoirs over the past few years. Many of them quite good. But none were as well written and literary as Surprised by Oxford.

      Carolyn Weber grew up in London, Ontario. Child of divorced Hungarian immigrants, she had to work hard to make it through high school and college while working to support herself and family and making excelling grades. Caro, as she was known, won a full scholarship to study literature at Oxford. She eventually received her masters and doctorate from Oxford and now is a professor of literature.

      Her background shows through in every page. Rarely have I read a more beautiful and evocative book. Caro is brilliant, and her friends are brilliant. They quote great literature and poems at one another, have deep theological conversations, and make me wish I had studied literature instead of sociology in college. I am sure I missed a number of the allusions. Many are quite subtle, a couple I wanted to run over and show someone. I did, by the time I had read half of the book, give copies to three friends. This is a book to be shared.

      It is not a surprise that eventually Caro finds God at Oxford. But the story of her first year there, and the changes in her life are a pleasure to read. You need to go pick this book up.

      I have since read this a second time (as well as her follow up book) and it was equally good on the second reading.
    • 4/5
      How shall I characterize this memoir? It’s partly spiritual autobiography, partly a romance, partly a Christian apologetic. That may explain its 480 pages and explain why I found it going in different direction too much which bothered me a bit. What I did like was the first part of the book. Carolyn Weber coming to Oxford as a Canadian to study in this centuries old institution with all its strange customs and traditions. She’s clearly a fish out of water and describe the culture-clash with the brits in a funny way. To be intruduced to this great university is a treat and you do feel like you’re led by the hand into the great halls of wisdom and learning (and extravagant dinner parties with the professors). Her exploration of the Christian worldview starts as she meets an American student who challenge her atheistic or agnostic beliefs. That she eventually also falls in love with him makes her spiritual search for the truth more complicated.I read it actually as the title suggest a nod to C. S. Lewis’ [Surprised by Joy] - but there’s very little about Lewis here, other than her going to a meeting in the “C. S. Lewis Society” (a good scene by the way).

    Book preview

    Surprised by Oxford - Carolyn Weber

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1