My Alphabetical Biography List: Armstrong, Karen - religious author
"The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness"
A former nun, Armstrong left the convent after seven years feeling utterly broken. Her adjustment back to the "real world" was extremely difficult, due in part to anxiety attacks, hallucinations, and times when she would have no recollection of what she had just been doing or how she got to where she was. After years of psychiatric "help," that only made things worse, prescription drugs that did nothing, and living with the fear that she was losing her mind, she had a grand mal seizure. This finally brought her to the right doctor. Turned out this was not a psychiatric issue; it was a form of epilepsy.
In the course of all this, she lost her faith completely. She started writing books about religion, aiming to show how that all religions are fiction. Through her study of various religions, however, she came to believe that all religions are the same and all are true. I found the last part of the book, in which she was explaining all this, extremely sad. I just heard over and over in my head, "Tash is Aslan and Aslan is Tash." It's not true. All religions are not the same. She had some interesting points, but she was so far from the Truth. You just have to hope that people who read this book aren't influenced by her views.
One of her interesting points, though, was when, after she had lost her faith, her friend asked her to bring her (the friend's) son to church. Many changes had taken place within the Catholic church since she had left it. "This was the new vernacular Mass, the creation of the Second Vatican Council. It was lively fresh, and cheerful - perhaps a little to cheery for my taste. It was all so sensible and matter-of-fact...this service was so wordy. The old liturgy, punctuated by singing that gave the congregation time for reflection, had had a silent, contemplative core. But now we seemed to be afraid to stop talking..." It reminded me of when I was in Sweden and Sven commented on the American tendency to bow our heads and pray, say amen, and get on with whatever is next. We don't bow our heads and listen, at least not during a service. Services aren't contemplative at all. They're missing something. We're missing something. It's a shame.
A former nun, Armstrong left the convent after seven years feeling utterly broken. Her adjustment back to the "real world" was extremely difficult, due in part to anxiety attacks, hallucinations, and times when she would have no recollection of what she had just been doing or how she got to where she was. After years of psychiatric "help," that only made things worse, prescription drugs that did nothing, and living with the fear that she was losing her mind, she had a grand mal seizure. This finally brought her to the right doctor. Turned out this was not a psychiatric issue; it was a form of epilepsy.
In the course of all this, she lost her faith completely. She started writing books about religion, aiming to show how that all religions are fiction. Through her study of various religions, however, she came to believe that all religions are the same and all are true. I found the last part of the book, in which she was explaining all this, extremely sad. I just heard over and over in my head, "Tash is Aslan and Aslan is Tash." It's not true. All religions are not the same. She had some interesting points, but she was so far from the Truth. You just have to hope that people who read this book aren't influenced by her views.
One of her interesting points, though, was when, after she had lost her faith, her friend asked her to bring her (the friend's) son to church. Many changes had taken place within the Catholic church since she had left it. "This was the new vernacular Mass, the creation of the Second Vatican Council. It was lively fresh, and cheerful - perhaps a little to cheery for my taste. It was all so sensible and matter-of-fact...this service was so wordy. The old liturgy, punctuated by singing that gave the congregation time for reflection, had had a silent, contemplative core. But now we seemed to be afraid to stop talking..." It reminded me of when I was in Sweden and Sven commented on the American tendency to bow our heads and pray, say amen, and get on with whatever is next. We don't bow our heads and listen, at least not during a service. Services aren't contemplative at all. They're missing something. We're missing something. It's a shame.
posted by melilotnfosco | 4:54 PM
2 Comments:
1) one thing i'm finding with my biography reading is that, where i used to read primarily Christian books, i'm not any more, and it makes me so sad when people miss the point. i just read one about someone who's gone through his whole life feeling like something was missing, and blaming it on his absentee father, and yet he has never realized that he has a Father who's always been faithful.
2) and i like sven's comment about church. it's a very good point. the sermon is over, we say a quick prayer, and we leave. and if we talk with each other, it's asking about lunch, or about their vacation, or if their arthritis is still flaring up. we don't contemplate what we've just heard, and we don't discuss it. if we were jewish, we'd sit and debate it all afternoon.
I think your 2nd comment goes back to my comments about that Ron Paul convention too, hobsis -- I'd much prefer discussing/debating the sermon! :) At least more often than we do.
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