. . . the religious quest is not about discovering “the truth” or “the meaning of life” but about living as intensely as possible here and now.
Karen Armstrong is a former nun and author of twenty-eight books that have been translated into forty-five languages. This memoir spans over twenty years of her life, beginning with her departure from the convent in 1969. Her story is one of transformation—from failed Oxford scholar to school teacher to British television personality on all things faith-based. Along the way she battles anorexia and epilepsy, and loses her parochial faith while immersing herself in the shared roots of the Christian, Judaic, and Muslim faiths.
The narrative arc is slow, with few memorable characters, which makes her sense of isolation all the more palpable. To be Karen, one senses, is not to be a happy person. But for the reader who enjoys philosophical discourse, there is ample material here.
To get a sense of her communication style and her thoughts on God, for which she won the 2008 TED Prize enabling her to create The Charter for Compassion, a document coauthored by religious leaders from around the world in their quest for peace, watch this brief excerpt from one of her talks.
2004, 306 pages.