Through the Narrow Gate A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery

by Armstrong, Karen

• ISBN13: 9780312340957
• ISBN10: 0312340958
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-19
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary

Through the Narrow Gateis Karen Armstrong's intimate memoir of life inside a Catholic convent. With refreshing honesty and clarity, the book takes readers on a revelatory adventure that begins with Armstrong's decision in the course of her spiritual training offers a fascinating view into a shrouded religious life, and a vivid, moving account of the spiritual coming age of one of our most loved and respected interpreters of religious. After leaving her religious order in 1969,Karen Armstrongtook a degree at Oxford University and taught modern literature. She is also the author of the bestsellingA History of God. Her other books includeBeginning of the World,The Gospel According to Woman,Buddha,Holy War, andMohammed. Now featuring a new introduction by the author,Through the Narrow Gateis an articulate, highly compelling autobiography concerning life inside a Catholic convent. A leading religious scholar, author, and commentator (who eventually left her religious order in 1969), Armstrong takes readers on a candid if not revelatory adventure that begins with her decision, at age 17, to become a nun and devote herself to God. What she discovers over the course of her religious trainingand Mary McCarthy once called this work "the most full and honest book that I've read on this subject"gives readers a fascinating view into a shrouded religious life. This classic autobiography, moreover, is a detailed meditation on spiritual coming of ageand on the nature and character of faith itself. As Armstrong writes in her new introduction: "WritingThrough the Narrow Gatestarted 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 inThe Spiral Staircase. But the search began here, in this first memoir." "A scrupulous record of one woman's spiritual journey, excellently written and profoundly moving."Cosmopolitan "An emotive, spiritually intimate, and often quite moving memoir . . . Written with affection, some humor, and a bittersweet regret."Kirkus Reviews

Author Biography

After leaving her religious order in 1969, Karen Armstrong took a degree at Oxford University and taught modern literature. She has since become one of the world's foremost commentators on religious affairs; her most recent book is The Battle for God. A teacher at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers, and an honorary members of the Association of Muslim Social Sciences, she lives in London.

Table of Contents

"An emotive, spiritually intimate, and often quite moving memoir...written with affection, some humor, and bittersweet regret."
- Kirkus Reviews

"A scrupulous record of one woman's spiritual journey, excellently written and profoundly moving."
- Cosmopolitan