The Most Reluctant Convert Spiritual Movie Review 5 Stars
he Most Reluctant Convert is an outstanding movie for anyone in devotion to spiritual awakening. Watching movies for Spiritual Awakening is a powerful means for recognizing the plays in consciousness that deny Divinity and to release those denials to admit true Identity is Love. (Click here to download the Guide to Watching movies for Spiritual Awakening.) It is a film adaptation of the CS Lewis semi autobiographical book, Surprised by Joy (on Amazon). The film is, for the most part, a soliloquy delivered artfully by the film’s main character, CS “Jack” Lewis (Max McClean), intermixed with flashbacks of the events of his younger years that lead to his admission that God is all there is. If you would like to watch the movie it can be streamed here.
CS Lewis is famous for writing The Chronicles of Narnia. The movie is steeped in his mastery of the English language and thus ability to simply and eloquently express profound mystical revelations.
The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.
~ C.S. Lewis
Why is The Most Reluctant Convert such a powerful spiritual awakening movie?
The Most Reluctant Convert is a powerful spiritual awakening movie because of its accurate depiction of the simplicity of awakening when there is conviction to know the truth. Much of the movie’s power lies in the stunning beauty of Lewis’ description of his conversion from atheist, through theism to recognition of Christ in himself and his brothers.
Along the spiritual “path” a seeker may experience conflict and many doubt thoughts may arise about whether the ultimate “goal of knowing God” is possible.” C.S. Lewis eloquently shares his “theories” and doubt thoughts about God and the world as they evolved and how ultimately his perspective resolved to a joyful conclusion.
“In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms.”
The movie beautifully depicts his openness and willingnessto have his concepts of God and the world completely reinterpreted by the Spirit, and ultimately to see the truth of the presence of Love. In Spiritual Awakening the desire to know the truth must be held to be of greater value than maintaining the concepts of delusion.
It is no mistake that Lewis called his book, Surprised by Joy. The world is a denial of joy as our natural inheritance. The recognition that that joy/supreme happiness is our only function in this world is the result of ceasing to deny Divinity. C.S Lewis accepted that there is no other purpose for the world other than union with God and thus the full transcendence of all pain and suffering to the natural state of joy.
Some say Lewis’ definition of joy was “the longing for God” and in the movie the recognition of Joy is somewhat understated in the conversion. Yet Lewis’ understanding goes far beyond longing. Lewis describes what he discovered clearly in this quote:
“I doubt whether anyone who has tasted [Joy] would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is.”
~ C.S. Lewis
This statement captures the essence of the transcendence of personal identity. It is well worth contemplation, as is the rest of this movie. The experience of pleasure is the confusion that some happiness can be found through the “getting mechanism” of personal identity. Yet pleasure is the same as pain. Both are denials of true Joy, which is true Identity.
There is no more profound recognition in awakening than seeing that salvation comes through how we choose to see our brothers. This is a small snippet from Lewis’ closing remarks in the movie that demonstrate his profound realization in this regard:
“As I looked around…I thought not only of my own potential glory hereafter but also of my neighbor’s glory…that if you saw it now you would be strongly tempted to fall down in worship…”
~ C.S. Lewis
In seeing God in our brother we can testify as Lewis did:
“Like a man after a long sleep becomes aware he is now awake.”
~ C.S. Lewis
CS Lews meets with mighty companions to explore what is true. This is true joining.
The natural state of Spiritual Awakening (peace of mind/joy) will not be a consistent experience as long as there are hidden subconscious desires for pain and suffering. The ego claims there is only pain yet since it relishes pain when carefully examined it can be seen that the ego derives pleasure in pain! The movie depicts a number of subconscious desires that must be released in order for a consistent experience of peace.
A good example of a desire that needed to be healed is the death of C.S. Lewis’ mother early in the movie. The feeling of loss associated with death is a hidden desire for the experience of abandonment. It may seem in form to be about the death of a mother or a father, yet the ego hides this in the desire for the experience of loss/death of the awareness of our true Father, inner Light, from the mind. As the admission comes that there can never be loss and death is impossible, then the idea of loss is recognized as impossible.
More hidden desires depicted in the movie are listed below:
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