What do you think?
Rate this book
Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion
Into the Deep traces one woman's spiritual odyssey from birthright evangelicalism through postmodern feminism and, ultimately, into the Roman Catholic Church. As a college student, Abigail Favale experienced a feminist awakening that reshaped her life and faith. A decade later, on the verge of atheism, she found herself entering the oldest male-helmed institution on the planet--the last place she expected to be.
With humor and insight, the author describes her gradual exodus from Christian orthodoxy and surprising swerve into Catholicism. She writes candidly about grappling with wounds from her past, Catholic sexual morality, the male priesthood, and an interfaith marriage. Her vivid prose brings to life the wrenching tumult of conversion--a conversion that began after she entered the Church and began to pry open its mysteries. There, she discovered the startling beauty of a sacramental cosmos, a vision of reality that upended her notions of gender, sexuality, identity, and authority. Into the Deep is a thoroughly twenty-first-century conversion, a compelling account of recovering an ancient faith after a decade of doubt.
With humor and insight, the author describes her gradual exodus from Christian orthodoxy and surprising swerve into Catholicism. She writes candidly about grappling with wounds from her past, Catholic sexual morality, the male priesthood, and an interfaith marriage. Her vivid prose brings to life the wrenching tumult of conversion--a conversion that began after she entered the Church and began to pry open its mysteries. There, she discovered the startling beauty of a sacramental cosmos, a vision of reality that upended her notions of gender, sexuality, identity, and authority. Into the Deep is a thoroughly twenty-first-century conversion, a compelling account of recovering an ancient faith after a decade of doubt.
200 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
February 2, 2019
From Evangelicalism to post-modern Christianity to secular feminism to Roman Catholicism - the winding road Abigail Favale walked toward cohesive faith is incredibly engaging. As a Catholic convert myself, I related to many of the struggles Favale brings up - from inconsistent definitions of feminism to a disillusionment with biblical-based religion... And finally a somewhat surprising and radical engagement with and ultimate acceptance of Catholicism. Favale's depth of thought and honest confrontation of difficult and controversial issues is extremely compelling. I would encourage anyone - atheist, Christan, Buddhist, agnostic - to read this book. A very rare achievement - this book does not shame, condemn, or prostelatize, but rather conveys an intellectual and emotional journey with compassion and vulnerability.
April 7, 2026
I’ve been gleaning from her work for several years now, so was happy to finally listen to her written story. She’s a beautiful writer. Of course, this wasn’t *about* sexuality, but I found myself identifying with much in those sections, among others. The way she delicately ties in her marriage at the end was helpful. So many stories often leave out the spouse (perhaps for good reason) but it often makes wrestlings of faith seem an exclusively atomized endeavor, when really, we are tangled up in all sorts of relationships—marriage chief among them. All in all, it’s a gorgeously told journey. The ways of the Holy Spirit are worth paying attention to.
April 8, 2026
devoured this in one day. Abigail Favale is an incredibly gifted storyteller, and this book underscores that conversions are an unfolding story in partnership with God’s grace - not a singular moment. His grace causes us to draw near, and as soon as we assent to draw near, he begins to transform our hearts. Does that make me a Calvinist or Arminian???
my one criticism is I think Abigail is a little unfair to Protestants. When I’m done with Ortlund’s book I’ll have more fleshed out thoughts. There are some bad evangelical churches out there and I totally understand her disappointment with the Christianity of her youth, but I think she’s slightly throwing the baby out with the bath water theologically.
That being said, I understand in my soul her almost carnal desire to be near to Christ. I’ve been coming to a deeper appreciation that although the Eucharist is not Christ’s actual flesh, it is infused with Christ’s presence in a powerful way. Hence why we need to fence the table!!!!!!
Her reflections on prayer were beautiful. I, too, needed the encouragement that Sister Juanita gave her — when Abigail said she “was an intellectual, and thus needed some hefty reading to aid my discernment process,” the Sister told her to “read less, and pray more”. feeling called out and exposed.
I was also struck by how SIMPLE her “dangerous” prayers were that led her to deeper intimacy after she joined the church, for example- “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”. Simple meditations on Scripture. Something I want to incorporate into my own prayer life, that I hope and expect will draw me deeper into the well that is Christ.
Laughed out loud at her characterization of the evangelical prayer circle and how the word “just” punctuates all our prayers. I disagree that you have to become Catholic to move away from the “Lord, give me” model of prayer, but her point is taken. I will still love intercessory prayer for one another’s burdens at small group.
Last point. I loved the maturation of her thoughts on sin and recognizing that it is both extrinsically, and intrinsically damaging. Sin requires cleansing not just because it is disobedient to God’s law, but because it destroys our souls. But through the blood of Jesus, our souls can be cleansed, restored, and made whole. Again, some Protestant churches do confession/absolution very well (thinking about the Rez vigil!!! and honestly Kings is getting better at this), so one doesn’t have to be Catholic.
I will talk to anyone who asks about this book. It is a reminder that communion with God is the deepest joys a person can attain.
my one criticism is I think Abigail is a little unfair to Protestants. When I’m done with Ortlund’s book I’ll have more fleshed out thoughts. There are some bad evangelical churches out there and I totally understand her disappointment with the Christianity of her youth, but I think she’s slightly throwing the baby out with the bath water theologically.
That being said, I understand in my soul her almost carnal desire to be near to Christ. I’ve been coming to a deeper appreciation that although the Eucharist is not Christ’s actual flesh, it is infused with Christ’s presence in a powerful way. Hence why we need to fence the table!!!!!!
Her reflections on prayer were beautiful. I, too, needed the encouragement that Sister Juanita gave her — when Abigail said she “was an intellectual, and thus needed some hefty reading to aid my discernment process,” the Sister told her to “read less, and pray more”. feeling called out and exposed.
I was also struck by how SIMPLE her “dangerous” prayers were that led her to deeper intimacy after she joined the church, for example- “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”. Simple meditations on Scripture. Something I want to incorporate into my own prayer life, that I hope and expect will draw me deeper into the well that is Christ.
Laughed out loud at her characterization of the evangelical prayer circle and how the word “just” punctuates all our prayers. I disagree that you have to become Catholic to move away from the “Lord, give me” model of prayer, but her point is taken. I will still love intercessory prayer for one another’s burdens at small group.
Last point. I loved the maturation of her thoughts on sin and recognizing that it is both extrinsically, and intrinsically damaging. Sin requires cleansing not just because it is disobedient to God’s law, but because it destroys our souls. But through the blood of Jesus, our souls can be cleansed, restored, and made whole. Again, some Protestant churches do confession/absolution very well (thinking about the Rez vigil!!! and honestly Kings is getting better at this), so one doesn’t have to be Catholic.
I will talk to anyone who asks about this book. It is a reminder that communion with God is the deepest joys a person can attain.
January 12, 2019
This spiritual autobiography by Abigail Favale, a former professor of mine who I highly respect, can be described in one word: courageous. Her journey into the heart of Catholicism is nothing less than a journey into a full self-giving to the Beloved.
March 24, 2026
A dear friend of mine cried reading this, and for good reason. Favale captures the beauty of being called home in faith and with full ardor, capturing the intimacy between particularly herself and the Eucharist and being a woman. I still have questions, but the humanity here is beyond dispute.
November 20, 2025
I guess I expected this to be a heady memoir about a philosophical conversion. And it is that in all the right measure. But I was not prepared for what an incredibly gifted, poetic writer the author is. Nor for the sublime storytelling. The subtitle does not do this book justice. Halfway through, you may think to yourself "oh this is a great story, but I see where this is going." Reader, you do not. You do not see where this is going. My favorite book of the year, maybe the last five years. Highly recommend.
January 31, 2026
Beautiful, insightful and poetic writing. I leaned so much about why people are drawn to Catholicism.
March 21, 2024
“Why have I been rescued from the abyss, while people I love continue to live there, on its yawning edge?”
This story dispenses hope! Let your heart be a reflection of the Word.
This story dispenses hope! Let your heart be a reflection of the Word.
June 3, 2024
I've appreciated Favale's work on gender (Her more recent and popular book is The Genesis of Gender) and was curious to hear her conversion story. This did not disappoint. She's an incredibly good writer (perk of being a college prof) and her story was gripping. If you can find a copy, you'll enjoy it.
February 24, 2026
Made me cry, wonderful story.
July 5, 2025
Compelling and beautifully written. The second half is not quite as well structured as the first, but equally lovely in its own, more theological way.
December 30, 2022
Memoirs, especially those of conversion to a faith I love, are extremely difficult to rate on any type of scale. That said, I related to many parts of Abigail's journey, but others I was at odds with.
My conversion to Catholicism lead me to see my feminist ideals not at odds with the Church, but something to aspire to embody with even more fervor. I do not believe feminism to threaten or harm the Church, but rather has the potential to embolden it with the Light of the Holy Spirit.
I suppose if I have any grievances with this deeply beautiful, personal story of conversion, it would be that there was not room made for those Catholics who have fundamental disagreements with some Church teachings, yet are committed to it nonetheless. The Catholic Church has many priests, as well as those consecrated to religious life, who believe as the Church lives and breathes, so should she be open to admittance of wrongs and continual submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I believe historically we've seen the Church repent and reevaluate certain aspects of its teachings/traditions. I hold out much prayerful hope for further various changes as I choose to raise my own children in this faith.
For this author, clearly feminism did not draw her nearer to Christ, and this had to be reevaluated and in many ways surrendered. Yet, as an evangelical convert to Catholicism myself, not having had the same experience, I found myself only able to offer up grace for our differences rather than finding solidarity. And yet, I think the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ makes room for these differences as we strive to walk out our imperfect faith.
My conversion to Catholicism lead me to see my feminist ideals not at odds with the Church, but something to aspire to embody with even more fervor. I do not believe feminism to threaten or harm the Church, but rather has the potential to embolden it with the Light of the Holy Spirit.
I suppose if I have any grievances with this deeply beautiful, personal story of conversion, it would be that there was not room made for those Catholics who have fundamental disagreements with some Church teachings, yet are committed to it nonetheless. The Catholic Church has many priests, as well as those consecrated to religious life, who believe as the Church lives and breathes, so should she be open to admittance of wrongs and continual submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I believe historically we've seen the Church repent and reevaluate certain aspects of its teachings/traditions. I hold out much prayerful hope for further various changes as I choose to raise my own children in this faith.
For this author, clearly feminism did not draw her nearer to Christ, and this had to be reevaluated and in many ways surrendered. Yet, as an evangelical convert to Catholicism myself, not having had the same experience, I found myself only able to offer up grace for our differences rather than finding solidarity. And yet, I think the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ makes room for these differences as we strive to walk out our imperfect faith.
July 9, 2020
I read this book because Emily loved it. (She often interrupted my reading by reading selections of this book to me.) The author, Abigail Rine Favale, is an old professor of Emily's, and the book chronicles her spiritual autobiography from evangelical, to post-modern agnostic, to devout Catholic. Her writing is witty, clear, engaging. Her content is fascinating. Her ability to articulate her inner life is superb. Most of all, she translates the experience of becoming a Catholic remarkably well to those of us who are not Catholic. No matter what your spiritual biography, reading hers will make you want to better understand your own, and grow in the love that the author found.
May 29, 2019
A compelling and winsome account of her conversion story, Favale recounts her journey to Catholicism in a manner similar to Augustine’s confessions as she looks back on her life. She journeys through her worldview as a “post-modern feminist” and recovers for the reader a thoroughly Catholic femininity. Favale does not shy away from hard questions but provides a compelling response from church teachings and experiences in her own life.
A great read, filled with funny anecdotes, yet also very moving.
A great read, filled with funny anecdotes, yet also very moving.
October 12, 2019
Contemporary Conversion
This book helps us understand what finding a pearl beyond price is like, and what selling all one has to obtain it involves. I admire the honesty and courage that it took to write this story.
This book helps us understand what finding a pearl beyond price is like, and what selling all one has to obtain it involves. I admire the honesty and courage that it took to write this story.
May 23, 2020
This book was excellent. Beautiful, honest and raw prose drew me in quickly. I appreciated that it was academic without the weighty or pompous feeling that these stories can sometimes carry. Her narrative of her journey through feminism to Catholicism was nuanced and compelling.
July 4, 2022
a frustrating book! the memoir parts were very good but they were too often interrupted by apologetic bits, which the author is less gifted in writing
January 19, 2024
Thank you for writing this book!
June 19, 2025
This book is excellent. Well written, compelling, and so thoughtful. In light of things I’ve been thinking about, this book was so timely!
December 8, 2025
Beautifully written and so engaging. In many ways, it echoed my own heart.
July 16, 2023
As a cradle Catholic reading Abigail's story was a renewal of my faith. It brings up lots of the questions facing Catholic women in today's society.
June 5, 2021
This book was incredible! I am a Presbyterian, but I go to a Catholic school and one of my teachers recommended this to me to kind of hear my thoughts as a protestant. And I really like this book. Her story is really incredible and it points to a huge trend among evangelical christians as well. It was a really raw story and the author was incredibly frank about her struggles and realizations which was so great. Overall, it’s an important story and I’m so glad that I got a chance to hear it.
March 5, 2020
This well-written and thought-provoking memoir explores one woman's journey to the Catholic faith by exploring how her feminist outlook and career in academia influenced her religious beliefs over time. Even though I'm a cradle Catholic, I love to read conversion stories as they often shed new light on the teachings of the church. I especially loved this one for the way it promotes the use of reason to come to conclusions about who God is and how Catholics see him. The writing was also really enjoyable, a great mix of lovely descriptions and erudite arguments. I'm really glad that Haley Stewart mentioned it on her blog!
October 1, 2025
4.5 stars. As with The Genesis of Gender, Favale’s writing here is rich and poetic. Her story is largely different from my own, but her rich descriptions of her faith struck my heart and made me excited to grow in faith myself.
March 9, 2022
This is a very special book. Favale writes with humor and humility (related virtues for sure). She is also very smart and an excellent writer which equips her to present beautifully the very beauty that attracted her to back to faith and to the Catholic Church. This is a memoir. Accordingly, the first part of the book portrays the author's spiritual journey from growing up as an Evangelical Christian to flirting with Anglicanism to wrestling with and for awhile rejecting faith in light of her discovery of feminism and post-modern philosophy during her academic studies (Favale is a college professor). She remains God haunted though and ultimately finds her way into the Catholic Church, almost, we get the sense, despite herself. Her conversion story doesn't stop here, however. She continues to seek and wrestle with truth. In the second part of the book she presents her findings and in the process gives us several masterful chapters which show just how beautiful truth is, even and especially what many would consider the hardest truths. The book has made many readers think of St. Augustine's Confessions and that makes sense because Favale is both a transparent co-sojourner and theologically sophisticated teacher in the spirit of the bishop of Hippo. The book I thought of though when reading it was Scott and Kimberly Hahn's Rome Sweet Home. Perhaps this will be a Rome Sweet Home for the Millenial generation.
January 12, 2019
A unique and powerful conversion story. I found Favale's reflections on motherhood especially beautiful.
January 31, 2019
Essential reading for anyone curious about Catholicism.
July 5, 2021
Interesting conversion story
Once again, it shows that there are many doors into the Church. It always amazes me how all of us converts are pulled in in such diverse manners.
Once again, it shows that there are many doors into the Church. It always amazes me how all of us converts are pulled in in such diverse manners.
March 16, 2025
Love this book. Abigail Favale traces her faith journey from the evangelical bubble within a Mormon bubble that she was raised from, to adopting a feminist worldview, a stint as an Anglican, then a devolution toward non belief, her long dark night of the soul you might say that lasted years, and then finally her conversion to Catholicism. My faith journey mirrors Favale in that I was raised in an evangelical Calvinist bubble, and while never embracing the anti motherhood and Marxist strains within feminism I have no qualms about adopting the moniker feminist. Sometimes that’s just to spite conservatives that reject it wholesale lol. Favale’s journey to the Church, always being contrasted with the evangelical faith she grew up in and then the liberal feminist lens she adopted as a young adult, really shows how the Catholic Church truly is the fullness of the faith. Favales evangelical upbringing didn’t protect her from the lies of radical left feminism nor her descent toward atheism, in fact they laid the groundwork for those phases. What Favale was looking for in feminism, she ended up finding in Catholicism. This mirrors my own journey. I became obsessed with the evangelical debate between complementarinism vs egalitarianism for a time. The church that I grew up in exclusively taught complementarinism without giving egalitarian arguments a hearing. I was unsatisfied with the complementarian view and was attracted to the egalitarian view for awhile but also found it unsatisfactory. Turns out, Christianity divorced from the sacraments and the communion of the saints is lacking important elements.
The rest of my review are quotes from the book
Pg 62 “there’s this thing in Catholic theology called actual grace. I grew up with the ditty that mercy is not receiving something you deserve and grace is receiving something you don’t deserve - but grace, for Catholics, isn’t merely a disposition of God toward people. Grace is a substance, like supernatural sap, a dose of the life and power of God within us.”
Pg 91 “what the Eucharist is and does can explain why one must be part of the Catholic Church to take communion during Mass. Understand this requires entering, as reformed theologian Karl Barth called it, “the damnable Catholic ‘and.’” The Eucharist is not just a symbol. As sacrament, it is symbol and reality. It is an efficacious symbol, which transmits the reality it represents. If it is just a symbol, Flannery O’Connor is right: to hell with it.
Pg 101 “ in essence, my Bible alone evangelicalism and my newfound feminist faith were at odds, and I tried to make peace through the magical art of hermeneutics..
Pg 102-103 “without a connection to sacred tradition or the teaching authority of the Church, this crucial interpretive role is ultimately filled by the individual”
Pg 103 …the sola scriptura faith of my youth that emphasized an individualistic, emotional relationship with God did not protect me from the New Volunteerism (she defines as “I decide what is real, good,” etc)
Pg 104 “…I see the problem of authority as a the Achilles heel of Protestantism”
Pg 115 “it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to make a comparison between a Catholic Mass and the evangelical church services of my upbringing. Stripped of the Eucharist, there is no divine drama being staged, there is merely the word, and words about the word, but the Word never becomes flesh for his people to touch and taste”
Pg 116 In the Protestantism of my youth and the feminism that followed, debates surrounding gender tended to focus more on doing than being. YUP DEFINITELY have noticed that in Protestant circles.
Pg 121 “When I look back at my birthright evangelicalism, it’s as if the feminine aspects of the faith have been lopped off: there’s no Mary, no genealogy of heroic female saints, no visible Church as our mother, no Mass with its iconography of the bridegroom and bride, no sacramental understanding of our bodies as sacred signs.” PREACH!! Yes and amen. “ I rightly sensed that something was amiss in this version of Christianity, that it was too monolithically masculine, that anything feminine was sidelined and relegated. In that religious context, the masculine metaphors, in isolation from their female counterpart, were harsh and unremitting like banging out a melody using only the lower keys on a piano.”
The rest of my review are quotes from the book
Pg 62 “there’s this thing in Catholic theology called actual grace. I grew up with the ditty that mercy is not receiving something you deserve and grace is receiving something you don’t deserve - but grace, for Catholics, isn’t merely a disposition of God toward people. Grace is a substance, like supernatural sap, a dose of the life and power of God within us.”
Pg 91 “what the Eucharist is and does can explain why one must be part of the Catholic Church to take communion during Mass. Understand this requires entering, as reformed theologian Karl Barth called it, “the damnable Catholic ‘and.’” The Eucharist is not just a symbol. As sacrament, it is symbol and reality. It is an efficacious symbol, which transmits the reality it represents. If it is just a symbol, Flannery O’Connor is right: to hell with it.
Pg 101 “ in essence, my Bible alone evangelicalism and my newfound feminist faith were at odds, and I tried to make peace through the magical art of hermeneutics..
Pg 102-103 “without a connection to sacred tradition or the teaching authority of the Church, this crucial interpretive role is ultimately filled by the individual”
Pg 103 …the sola scriptura faith of my youth that emphasized an individualistic, emotional relationship with God did not protect me from the New Volunteerism (she defines as “I decide what is real, good,” etc)
Pg 104 “…I see the problem of authority as a the Achilles heel of Protestantism”
Pg 115 “it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to make a comparison between a Catholic Mass and the evangelical church services of my upbringing. Stripped of the Eucharist, there is no divine drama being staged, there is merely the word, and words about the word, but the Word never becomes flesh for his people to touch and taste”
Pg 116 In the Protestantism of my youth and the feminism that followed, debates surrounding gender tended to focus more on doing than being. YUP DEFINITELY have noticed that in Protestant circles.
Pg 121 “When I look back at my birthright evangelicalism, it’s as if the feminine aspects of the faith have been lopped off: there’s no Mary, no genealogy of heroic female saints, no visible Church as our mother, no Mass with its iconography of the bridegroom and bride, no sacramental understanding of our bodies as sacred signs.” PREACH!! Yes and amen. “ I rightly sensed that something was amiss in this version of Christianity, that it was too monolithically masculine, that anything feminine was sidelined and relegated. In that religious context, the masculine metaphors, in isolation from their female counterpart, were harsh and unremitting like banging out a melody using only the lower keys on a piano.”
June 20, 2022
An engaging mostly-memoir, part-apologetic by a highly educated, professional woman who left her Evangelical Protestant upbringing, spent a brief stint in Anglicanism and a long stint as a spiritual or Christian-lite academic feminist (which included the period during which she married her husband), before finding her way "into the deep" of traditional Catholicism.
The first half of the book is the more memoir-forward, narrating the author's life from adolescence through all the various paradigms of spiritual orientation (some more spiritual than others) that she adopts prior to finding her way into the Catholic Church. The major transition comes not with her baptism into the Church, though, but with the birth of her first child around a year later; she describes this as the "inward conversion" that begins after her outward conversion. She returns to the "into the deep" metaphorical framing but also admits that it's not a completely apt fit, because it's not a process of steady drifting deeper, but rather a series of minor epiphanies, "intermittent flares so bright and sudden they obliterated the way I used to see."
The last half of the book is still set in memoir framing, but is largely a tour de force of both the preaching and practices of traditional Catholicism, from the perspective of a woman gradually embracing them in her own life post-conversion and post-motherhood--both the outward signs and behaviors that tend to mark more traditional Catholics as well as a defense of some of the Church's most challenging or countercultural doctrines vis-a-vis the modern world and particularly via academic feminist circles. Examples of the former (outward signs) include the chapel veil, the reception of the Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue, regular Reconciliation, the Liturgy of the Hours, Marian consecration, and attendance at more traditional forms of the Mass (she gives an example of a Dominican parish); examples of the latter include the belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the reservation of Holy Orders to men, and sexual complementarity.
The final chapter of the book is an interesting coda because it involves the author's husband, who at this point is grounded in the one spiritual paradigm that the author herself never really fell into in all of her spiritual journey, which is also the dominant paradigm of our age: scientific materialism. The book ends on an ambiguous but hopeful (from the author's perspective) note on that front, but not with the HEA ending of her husband's conversion. The upshot is that neither in the primary memoir's narrative nor in this little aside at the end is there a story of a scientific materialist reaching the "deep" that the author has found.
Thus, I think the book will resonate most with those who, like the author, (1) have an Evangelical Protestant upbringing, (2) are disillusioned or disenchanted with Evanglical culture, but (3) also have never been at home in a purely material world. Some of the inward-conversion moments will make little sense or seem too "et voila!" for someone already comfortably viewing the world through a predominantly scientific materialist lens.
The first half of the book is the more memoir-forward, narrating the author's life from adolescence through all the various paradigms of spiritual orientation (some more spiritual than others) that she adopts prior to finding her way into the Catholic Church. The major transition comes not with her baptism into the Church, though, but with the birth of her first child around a year later; she describes this as the "inward conversion" that begins after her outward conversion. She returns to the "into the deep" metaphorical framing but also admits that it's not a completely apt fit, because it's not a process of steady drifting deeper, but rather a series of minor epiphanies, "intermittent flares so bright and sudden they obliterated the way I used to see."
The last half of the book is still set in memoir framing, but is largely a tour de force of both the preaching and practices of traditional Catholicism, from the perspective of a woman gradually embracing them in her own life post-conversion and post-motherhood--both the outward signs and behaviors that tend to mark more traditional Catholics as well as a defense of some of the Church's most challenging or countercultural doctrines vis-a-vis the modern world and particularly via academic feminist circles. Examples of the former (outward signs) include the chapel veil, the reception of the Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue, regular Reconciliation, the Liturgy of the Hours, Marian consecration, and attendance at more traditional forms of the Mass (she gives an example of a Dominican parish); examples of the latter include the belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the reservation of Holy Orders to men, and sexual complementarity.
The final chapter of the book is an interesting coda because it involves the author's husband, who at this point is grounded in the one spiritual paradigm that the author herself never really fell into in all of her spiritual journey, which is also the dominant paradigm of our age: scientific materialism. The book ends on an ambiguous but hopeful (from the author's perspective) note on that front, but not with the HEA ending of her husband's conversion. The upshot is that neither in the primary memoir's narrative nor in this little aside at the end is there a story of a scientific materialist reaching the "deep" that the author has found.
Thus, I think the book will resonate most with those who, like the author, (1) have an Evangelical Protestant upbringing, (2) are disillusioned or disenchanted with Evanglical culture, but (3) also have never been at home in a purely material world. Some of the inward-conversion moments will make little sense or seem too "et voila!" for someone already comfortably viewing the world through a predominantly scientific materialist lens.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews