from the back:

"'Writing Through the Narrow Gate started something that I did not expect. Almost by accident, I did become a writer, began to explore the history of the great world religions, and to investigate the notions of God and the sacred. I have told the story of this post-convent quest in The Spiral Staircase. But the search began here, in this first memoir.'

So begins Karen Armstrong's new introduction to her classic memoir of life inside a Catholic convent. Read and cherished by thousands all over the world since it was first published in 1981, Through the Narrow Gate takes the reader on a spiritual journey that began one September day in 1962 when Armstrong said good-bye to her family at London's King's Cross station and journeyed on to the convent in Tripton to become a nun. Through the Narrow Gate is by turns a book of spiritual revelation and an intimate look at life inside the cloistered walls of the convent. It is, most importantly, the first chapter in Karen Armstrong's journey to become one of the most beloved and respected writers dealing with religion today."

So I've started something (relatively) new with my reading habits, inspired by Joseph Campbell. I re-read The Power Of Myth a few months ago, in which Campbell says that the proper way to read is to choose an author and work through all of his/her works at once. I was intrigued so I've been trying it. I knew that I couldn't stay with only one author so I chose a couple to focus on, alternating between them. Karen Armstrong is one of my current authors, so here I've read her first book. I wasn't very excited about it; I mostly chose her for her later books on religious history. But this book snuck up on me. I did enjoy it, even though it made me angry in some places. I've always been curious about conventual life. If it wasn't for the whole believing in god thing, I think I could do it. I wouldn't be happy in Karen Armstrong's convent, though.

I was angry with the nuns particularly for their coldness. My thinking is this - if you believe in a god who created the world, then you believe that we are all his creatures. Shouldn't it then follow for you to be kind to everyone? But these nuns really aren't. They get too caught up in the rules, in the letter or the law, and they forget to practice the spirit of the law. Isn't it odd that, so often, the more devout someone is, the less Christian she becomes?

I'm looking forward to reading (and in just a couple cases, re-reading) Armstrong's books, now with the background of her time in the convent. I'm planning to do them in chronological order and next up is her study of women in Christianity. Watch this space.

bench on O'Keefe side of 1010 Common

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