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The Nuns: A Firsthand Report
1976, hardcover edition, Lippincott, Philadelphia, PA. 326 pages. The author examined the lives "of more than 500 nuns, from California to Zambia." Here are their feelings about their profession / their reward / and God. Very well done, by a British journalist.
- GenresNonfictionChristianity
326 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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March 13, 2023
A JOURNALIST LOOKS BROADLY AT NUNS AND CONVENTS
Author Marcelle Bernstein wrote in the Introduction to this 1976 book, “I decided that the best way to learn what I wanted to know [about nuns] was to write a book myself. My qualifications for such a task were… unlikely. I could hardly have had a less Christian background; I am a Jew, I am in no sense a religious person; neither… did I have much sympathy for such a way of life… On the other hand, as a journalist I was used to submerging my own opinions. I could be objective… Nuns at this moment are in an unprecedented position, caught between two worlds. Many still cling to the rules and standards of the Middle Ages… For others there has been a revolution; they are moving… into the modern world. These nuns are among the most highly trained professional women in the West… They are politically aware and active on issues as diverse as the rights of Jews in Russia and the equality of women… For four years I talked at length to more than five hundred nuns… The constant question in my mind was: Why should any woman choose to live the life of a nun? I believe I understand a little better now, although I still cannot totally comprehend… I intended to make this book objective, but I think that finally it has become very personal. This is how I see the nuns I have met. What I really wanted to do was listen to what they said about all aspects of their lives and help give them the voice they still do not have.”
She explains, “Each other’s friendship is understandably important to these women, aware as they are of the problems and boredom of being in such close proximity all the time... They regard the community as their family, and that is certainly how it feels; the Carmelites are rather like Victorian daughters spending their chaperoned days at home. But the feeling of family goes deeper than that. Mother Imelda states, quite simply, ‘God is my husband.’” (Pg. 40)
She states, “It is of course the voice of God that takes women into religious life: a calling heard only in the heart, a need. But it is not enough to say they enter because they love God. Obviously they do---but so do other people, and most of them do not become nuns. The one statement that was made to me by almost every sister I talked to---and it was the only one they all made in common---was that this was not something they had decided for themselves… Basically, a religious vocation is a mystery, and perhaps to none will it remain so deep as to those favored with it… It is material for headlines when young women in the news decide to enter convents---particularly since such people tend to go to the strictly enclosed contemplative orders.” (Pg. 46-47)
She says, “To an outsider, the process of going into a convent looks remarkably like being admitted to prison: the taking of the person’s clothes, the removal of all personal items, the life in common, the assuming of a new identity---for the prisoner, a number; for the nun, the title ‘Sister.’” (Pg. 76) She adds, “Of the vows, the first, poverty, is something of a misnomer. The nun is to give up everything in order to identity with those who have little of their own. Yet, to most women, going into a convent means an end to financial worry and strain. Everything is provided for them---clothes and shoes, food and heat. In their old age, the community looks after them. Certainly they practice simplicity of life, but that is a very different thing from poverty.” (Pg. 83)
She observes, “The most important difference between nuns and other women, as groups, is that they choose lifelong chastity. By her vow of chastity, the nun is consecrating her life more perfectly to God… Behind chastity lies all the weight of ecclesiastical tradition. Yet in our society today, chastity and celibacy are considered neither desirable nor admirable. There is a feeling that the celibate is an aberration, a freak, someone with an emotional if not a physical impediment to normal pleasures, satisfactions, and happiness. A growing number of nuns echo this view… Most religious would not agree, however… In Christianity, virginity is seen at the consummation of love between God and the soul. The idea is that a woman, by foregoing any physical expression of sex… belongs not to one family but to all.” (Pg. 100-101)
She suggests, “There is increasing realization, particularly in America, that ordination need not be a bar to marriage… The majority of priests who marry seem to choose former nuns as their partners… It may well be that this will act as the thin edge of the wedge to alter the male view of women’s role within the hierarchical structure… Perhaps the most fascinating development on the question of celibacy is not that there are nuns who leave their orders to marry but that there are those who see no reason why married people should not be part of religious communities.” (Pg. 123)
She asserts, “The church is the most exclusive male club in the world… Despite the importance of women in the Gospel, despite the reverence for the virgin Mary, women were seen by society as the weaker sex. And the church has always been several steps again behind that… The power structure of the church was considered by men for men. The medieval lawyers who designed canon law believed that women were weak and incapable and needed protection and rigid rules to sustain them in religious life.” (Pg. 132-133)
She points out, “Nuns are becoming concerned with politics in a way that would have been impossible before the Second Vatican Council. Until then, the church hierarchy said categorically that politics was not the concern of the religious. A great many people still feel that way, but more and more men and women in the States are beginning to feel that they cannot stand on one side and watch injustice continue.” (Pg. 162)
She says, “The woman who joins a missionary order is of a special breed… Spending years at a time in remote corners of the world hundreds of miles from medical help… the life is rugged. They have to be … able to adjust to the most unlikely circumstances and acquire at least an inkling of the most difficult languages. They need… considerable emotional stability, for they often find themselves in dangerous situations… They must have initiative to face the emergencies, and something more with which to combat the loneliness.” (Pg. 179-180)
She notes, “Intellectually, the image of the nun has suffered through enclosure… But if religious communities have changed their ways, the public does not always realize this… A high percentage were repelled because they felt the sisters knew nothing of what was going on in the world. They said this at a time when the educational level of nuns has never been higher and when sisters are tackling every field open to women.” (Pg. 211-212)
She argues, “Change is coming now. For a few orders it is a radical rethinking. For others it takes the form of cautious reappraisal And for some it is still only a rumor. Yet there can be no doubt that, without change, many orders will not survive this century. Increasingly seen as irrelevant and anachronistic, their novitiates will continue to dwindle… Segregation from the world has left nuns and laity facing each other across a gulf of incomprehension.” (Pg. 233-234)
She summarizes, “The future of religious communities of women is threatened by two facts: fewer and fewer girls are entering religious life; and, every year, greater numbers of sisters are leaving. It is a malaise that has been increasing noticeably over the last thirty years, but it has reached dangerous proportions only since the beginning of the 1950… Communities with novitiates built to house fifty now consider themselves lucky to have five…” (Pg. 272-273) She continues, “It is becoming increasingly difficult to define the borderline between Christian laywomen dedicating their lives to others and those sisters who, to all intents and purposes, live and behave in a similar way… If nuns are to survive in any large numbers, these new groups which are springing up… must be allowed to live and work as they wish with the recognition of the church.” (Pg. 312-313)
This book, even though nearly fifty years old, will be of great interest to those studying nuns in the modern era.
Author Marcelle Bernstein wrote in the Introduction to this 1976 book, “I decided that the best way to learn what I wanted to know [about nuns] was to write a book myself. My qualifications for such a task were… unlikely. I could hardly have had a less Christian background; I am a Jew, I am in no sense a religious person; neither… did I have much sympathy for such a way of life… On the other hand, as a journalist I was used to submerging my own opinions. I could be objective… Nuns at this moment are in an unprecedented position, caught between two worlds. Many still cling to the rules and standards of the Middle Ages… For others there has been a revolution; they are moving… into the modern world. These nuns are among the most highly trained professional women in the West… They are politically aware and active on issues as diverse as the rights of Jews in Russia and the equality of women… For four years I talked at length to more than five hundred nuns… The constant question in my mind was: Why should any woman choose to live the life of a nun? I believe I understand a little better now, although I still cannot totally comprehend… I intended to make this book objective, but I think that finally it has become very personal. This is how I see the nuns I have met. What I really wanted to do was listen to what they said about all aspects of their lives and help give them the voice they still do not have.”
She explains, “Each other’s friendship is understandably important to these women, aware as they are of the problems and boredom of being in such close proximity all the time... They regard the community as their family, and that is certainly how it feels; the Carmelites are rather like Victorian daughters spending their chaperoned days at home. But the feeling of family goes deeper than that. Mother Imelda states, quite simply, ‘God is my husband.’” (Pg. 40)
She states, “It is of course the voice of God that takes women into religious life: a calling heard only in the heart, a need. But it is not enough to say they enter because they love God. Obviously they do---but so do other people, and most of them do not become nuns. The one statement that was made to me by almost every sister I talked to---and it was the only one they all made in common---was that this was not something they had decided for themselves… Basically, a religious vocation is a mystery, and perhaps to none will it remain so deep as to those favored with it… It is material for headlines when young women in the news decide to enter convents---particularly since such people tend to go to the strictly enclosed contemplative orders.” (Pg. 46-47)
She says, “To an outsider, the process of going into a convent looks remarkably like being admitted to prison: the taking of the person’s clothes, the removal of all personal items, the life in common, the assuming of a new identity---for the prisoner, a number; for the nun, the title ‘Sister.’” (Pg. 76) She adds, “Of the vows, the first, poverty, is something of a misnomer. The nun is to give up everything in order to identity with those who have little of their own. Yet, to most women, going into a convent means an end to financial worry and strain. Everything is provided for them---clothes and shoes, food and heat. In their old age, the community looks after them. Certainly they practice simplicity of life, but that is a very different thing from poverty.” (Pg. 83)
She observes, “The most important difference between nuns and other women, as groups, is that they choose lifelong chastity. By her vow of chastity, the nun is consecrating her life more perfectly to God… Behind chastity lies all the weight of ecclesiastical tradition. Yet in our society today, chastity and celibacy are considered neither desirable nor admirable. There is a feeling that the celibate is an aberration, a freak, someone with an emotional if not a physical impediment to normal pleasures, satisfactions, and happiness. A growing number of nuns echo this view… Most religious would not agree, however… In Christianity, virginity is seen at the consummation of love between God and the soul. The idea is that a woman, by foregoing any physical expression of sex… belongs not to one family but to all.” (Pg. 100-101)
She suggests, “There is increasing realization, particularly in America, that ordination need not be a bar to marriage… The majority of priests who marry seem to choose former nuns as their partners… It may well be that this will act as the thin edge of the wedge to alter the male view of women’s role within the hierarchical structure… Perhaps the most fascinating development on the question of celibacy is not that there are nuns who leave their orders to marry but that there are those who see no reason why married people should not be part of religious communities.” (Pg. 123)
She asserts, “The church is the most exclusive male club in the world… Despite the importance of women in the Gospel, despite the reverence for the virgin Mary, women were seen by society as the weaker sex. And the church has always been several steps again behind that… The power structure of the church was considered by men for men. The medieval lawyers who designed canon law believed that women were weak and incapable and needed protection and rigid rules to sustain them in religious life.” (Pg. 132-133)
She points out, “Nuns are becoming concerned with politics in a way that would have been impossible before the Second Vatican Council. Until then, the church hierarchy said categorically that politics was not the concern of the religious. A great many people still feel that way, but more and more men and women in the States are beginning to feel that they cannot stand on one side and watch injustice continue.” (Pg. 162)
She says, “The woman who joins a missionary order is of a special breed… Spending years at a time in remote corners of the world hundreds of miles from medical help… the life is rugged. They have to be … able to adjust to the most unlikely circumstances and acquire at least an inkling of the most difficult languages. They need… considerable emotional stability, for they often find themselves in dangerous situations… They must have initiative to face the emergencies, and something more with which to combat the loneliness.” (Pg. 179-180)
She notes, “Intellectually, the image of the nun has suffered through enclosure… But if religious communities have changed their ways, the public does not always realize this… A high percentage were repelled because they felt the sisters knew nothing of what was going on in the world. They said this at a time when the educational level of nuns has never been higher and when sisters are tackling every field open to women.” (Pg. 211-212)
She argues, “Change is coming now. For a few orders it is a radical rethinking. For others it takes the form of cautious reappraisal And for some it is still only a rumor. Yet there can be no doubt that, without change, many orders will not survive this century. Increasingly seen as irrelevant and anachronistic, their novitiates will continue to dwindle… Segregation from the world has left nuns and laity facing each other across a gulf of incomprehension.” (Pg. 233-234)
She summarizes, “The future of religious communities of women is threatened by two facts: fewer and fewer girls are entering religious life; and, every year, greater numbers of sisters are leaving. It is a malaise that has been increasing noticeably over the last thirty years, but it has reached dangerous proportions only since the beginning of the 1950… Communities with novitiates built to house fifty now consider themselves lucky to have five…” (Pg. 272-273) She continues, “It is becoming increasingly difficult to define the borderline between Christian laywomen dedicating their lives to others and those sisters who, to all intents and purposes, live and behave in a similar way… If nuns are to survive in any large numbers, these new groups which are springing up… must be allowed to live and work as they wish with the recognition of the church.” (Pg. 312-313)
This book, even though nearly fifty years old, will be of great interest to those studying nuns in the modern era.
August 3, 2008
While this exploration of nuns and the institute of convents held some interesting discussions, I felt it was quite a hard read, and didn't feel worth digging through the dense text. It is probably a book of its time. Now nearly 30 years old, the book was quite contemporary in its publishing day, and was addressing the questions of how the modern world (of the 1970s) was reflected by the changes in nuns and their orders.
There were some fascinating snippets of nuns' and ex-nuns' lives, where the author really used her observant and sharp writing style to capture the minute details of these women's lives. Unfortunately most of it was hidden away in tiny pockets of dry long winded and higher brow contemplation of the contemplatives and the working orders.
Reading this has raised a lot of questions, mainly to do with whether her dire predictions of the diminishing convent life and the praise for the future success of the new wave of communities birthed in the 1970s have come to pass - I wonder if someone researching the convents would agree with the author or just see it as a myopic view coloured by the culture of the time.
I'm going to try to find my copy of Isabel Losada's book New Habits to re-read, which may give me a slight glimpse of the workings of the bigger institutions through the very interesting stories of the 10 nuns she interviewed for the book. Ah, well, an interesting reflection already as I glanced at Isabel's website. It seems only half of the nuns in the book are still in the orders they were in when she interviewed them, and more than a third have left the religious life altogether. This certainly reflects the trends reported in The Nuns.
There were some fascinating snippets of nuns' and ex-nuns' lives, where the author really used her observant and sharp writing style to capture the minute details of these women's lives. Unfortunately most of it was hidden away in tiny pockets of dry long winded and higher brow contemplation of the contemplatives and the working orders.
Reading this has raised a lot of questions, mainly to do with whether her dire predictions of the diminishing convent life and the praise for the future success of the new wave of communities birthed in the 1970s have come to pass - I wonder if someone researching the convents would agree with the author or just see it as a myopic view coloured by the culture of the time.
I'm going to try to find my copy of Isabel Losada's book New Habits to re-read, which may give me a slight glimpse of the workings of the bigger institutions through the very interesting stories of the 10 nuns she interviewed for the book. Ah, well, an interesting reflection already as I glanced at Isabel's website. It seems only half of the nuns in the book are still in the orders they were in when she interviewed them, and more than a third have left the religious life altogether. This certainly reflects the trends reported in The Nuns.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews