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Divine Madness : Why I'm Still a Nun
"Why would any woman in her right mind want to be a nun?" asks Karol Jackowski in this engaging look into the "whys" of living in a community of religious women. At a time when such a life may seem an anachronism, and nuns an endangered species, she is a lively spokeswoman for the sisterhood."Believer and non-believer, clear friend and stranger, all want to know why I became a nun, why I still want to be a nun", she explains at the beginning of this deeply personal assessment of religious life. She brings a reporter's eye to her personal memoir as she offers a seamless movement from "the way we were" to "the way we are", and tries to make sense out of what it means to be a nun today.
Jackowski's view is a refreshingly different look at the life of sisters today. She goes beyond the crisis talk resulting from the precipitous decline in candidates for this life choice -- beyond the discussions of paradigm shifts and the need to re-found communities -- to present an appealing and inspiring view of being a nun. She shows how the sisterhood of vowed women religious is a special, graced way of living out the sisterhood of all women; how it offers a fulfilled life, one counter to contemporary society's expectations of women. Divine Madness is unflinchingly engaging while providing insight into the commitments of such a life -- community, celibacy, prayer, solitude, creativity, and the pursuit of mercy and justice.
What emerges in the process is a portrait of a woman committed to religious life as she explores a unique way of being present to those in need, to witnessing the gospel in a society hungry for things spiritual, yet untrusting of institutional religion.
Divine Madness offersa compelling case for religious life whatever form it takes -- as a valid, perhaps even necessary, life choice for contemporary women.
Jackowski's view is a refreshingly different look at the life of sisters today. She goes beyond the crisis talk resulting from the precipitous decline in candidates for this life choice -- beyond the discussions of paradigm shifts and the need to re-found communities -- to present an appealing and inspiring view of being a nun. She shows how the sisterhood of vowed women religious is a special, graced way of living out the sisterhood of all women; how it offers a fulfilled life, one counter to contemporary society's expectations of women. Divine Madness is unflinchingly engaging while providing insight into the commitments of such a life -- community, celibacy, prayer, solitude, creativity, and the pursuit of mercy and justice.
What emerges in the process is a portrait of a woman committed to religious life as she explores a unique way of being present to those in need, to witnessing the gospel in a society hungry for things spiritual, yet untrusting of institutional religion.
Divine Madness offersa compelling case for religious life whatever form it takes -- as a valid, perhaps even necessary, life choice for contemporary women.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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