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Through the Narrow Gate : A Memoir of Convent Life
Through the Narrow Gate is Karen Armstrong’s memoir of life inside a Catholic convent in the 1960’s.With gentleness and honesty, Armstrong takes her readers on a revelatory journey that begins with her decision, at the age of seventeen, to devote her life to God as a nun. yet once she embarked upon her spiritual training, she encountered a frightening and oppressive world, fossilized by tradition, which moulded, isolated and pushed her to the limit of what she could endure.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
About the author
Karen Armstrong
81 books3,494 followersKaren Armstrong is a British author and commentator of Irish Catholic descent known for her books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical Christian faith. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, while in the convent and graduated in English. She left the convent in 1969. Her work focuses on commonalities of the major religions, such as the importance of compassion and the Golden Rule.
Armstrong received the US$100,000 TED Prize in February 2008. She used that occasion to call for the creation of a Charter for Compassion, which was unveiled the following year.
Armstrong received the US$100,000 TED Prize in February 2008. She used that occasion to call for the creation of a Charter for Compassion, which was unveiled the following year.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews
September 24, 2021
I'd never read a memoir about someone who was a nun or lived as one, so I quickly added it in my pile of borrowing books at the library. Sadly the 7 years she was a nun, starting at 17, wasn't as uplifting and soul strengthening as one would hope. She later left that life because of the difficulty of it and this book tells the tale. Why she as the young age of 17 decided to get into this way of life and start her journey to become a nun. (It takes a bit of time to become a nun). It was emersive, interesting, emotional at times and very intriguing. I'm interested to see if Karen Armstrong have written any more memoirs after this as I would like to know where her life and faith took her afterwards
June 1, 2008
Probably 3 1/2 stars just because I found the setting so different from anything in my experience that it is somewhat difficult to connection. This is a tragic story of Karen Armstrong joining a very austere convent in 1962 at age 17. Despite a sincere desire to dedicate her life to God, she ultimately could not continue to endure the suffering and had to leave. It was painful to watch Karen/Martha try to adapt herself full of guilt to a life that did not allow her room to develop. The story includes a fascinating portrayal of leadership both good and bad. Some of her superiors were warmhearted and compassionate, but more of them had become hardened by their life of sacrifice and denial of comfort so that they appeared damaged by their suffering. Sadly they seemed to then hurt and damage others in their leadership roles. It appeared that they were thinking that their hardened state was the detachment that others should be striving for, rather than the compassion that can follow healing.
April 7, 2012
This book is a jewel, so rich in personal detail, so thoughtful and full of insight, of ideas that connect with other philosophical schools of thought beyond Catholicism.
It has been said that the first thing you must be able to do is love yourself, not in a selfish way but in a forgiving way, understanding that you are a creature of great possibility but also of great desire, need and fear.
Do we do what we do from rational thought or from innate drives and subconscious motives of which we are only faintly aware?
Karen Armstrong's journey from a 17 year old with a certainty of the course she should follow to an adult deeply aware of herself and willing to face the unpredictable and frightening is an absorbing tale of unfolding identity. The harsh environment brings her self-discovery through the process of self-denial.
We all run into people who impress us with their character. Observing how they deal with life can alter our own approach to it and, if we are fortunate, allow us to see life itself differently. Life can be traveled by known paths. Our psychological fragility invites us to chose the uniform (visible or not) that offers a known path, but as Eleanor Roosevelt wisely said, one should choose to do the thing that is most difficult for one to do. As the hot iron is strengthened by the hammer, so we become stronger by realizing the basis of the fears that dog us, but only if we look deeply into ourselves as we twist and turn under their power. Most fear to look.
This book shows how a systematic program of self-denial can free the individual of desires the satisfaction of which is not pleasure but servitude, not happiness, but a grind.
Often in the book, I would be taken aback by the seeming cruelty of orders given or treatment received from the person in authority over the sisters. At the same time I would think of other traditions of self-denial, such as those of Buddhism, that work toward the same goal.
In whatever way the goal of freedom from the self is pursued, by whatever practice it may be achieved, it is difficult and only reached by the few. Though many may make the attempt with the best of intentions, even entering an institution that is dedicated to it, the lesson of this book is that it is only the unpredictable combination of a particular self with a particular environment that will bring the result.
The result is the state of sainthood, to be a mahatma or great soul, as Gandhi was named. In this book we see it in Mother Bianca. I use this word not to mean an exceptionally good person, though that can accompany reaching the state, but one who has arrived at a level of knowing beyond what most can reach. That we all could reach such a state I have no doubt because the possibility comes with consciousness, but that the right circumstances, the right environment, the right challenge for the particular individual will meet that individual during his or her life is unlikely. That the individual will know what environment to seek is virtually impossible - we simply do not know ourselves deeply enough beforehand to know the path we should follow that will awaken us.
As Erich Fromm so beautifully put it - the tragedy of humanity is not that we must die, but that most die before they are born.
If you, like me, are not religious, I particularly recommend this book because it reveals a positive side of religion that can be separated from the particular mythos of a particular faith. It takes you deep into the self, thousands of miles away from "just going to church" to what being is about through the process of "dying the death I must" as expressed in the book. From what little I know of Islam and Hinduism, I would be very surprised if adherents of both faiths would not find something familiar in this book.
We need to keep in mind that religions were not the creations of ignorant fools, but were the very best attempt that could be made before the advent of science to discover the foundation of the self behind the curtain of appearances and bodily sensations. That religions became encrusted with dogma or symbols or relics or procedures far removed from their origins should not blind us to the human imperative for understanding ourselves that prompted their creation.
It has been said that the first thing you must be able to do is love yourself, not in a selfish way but in a forgiving way, understanding that you are a creature of great possibility but also of great desire, need and fear.
Do we do what we do from rational thought or from innate drives and subconscious motives of which we are only faintly aware?
Karen Armstrong's journey from a 17 year old with a certainty of the course she should follow to an adult deeply aware of herself and willing to face the unpredictable and frightening is an absorbing tale of unfolding identity. The harsh environment brings her self-discovery through the process of self-denial.
We all run into people who impress us with their character. Observing how they deal with life can alter our own approach to it and, if we are fortunate, allow us to see life itself differently. Life can be traveled by known paths. Our psychological fragility invites us to chose the uniform (visible or not) that offers a known path, but as Eleanor Roosevelt wisely said, one should choose to do the thing that is most difficult for one to do. As the hot iron is strengthened by the hammer, so we become stronger by realizing the basis of the fears that dog us, but only if we look deeply into ourselves as we twist and turn under their power. Most fear to look.
This book shows how a systematic program of self-denial can free the individual of desires the satisfaction of which is not pleasure but servitude, not happiness, but a grind.
Often in the book, I would be taken aback by the seeming cruelty of orders given or treatment received from the person in authority over the sisters. At the same time I would think of other traditions of self-denial, such as those of Buddhism, that work toward the same goal.
In whatever way the goal of freedom from the self is pursued, by whatever practice it may be achieved, it is difficult and only reached by the few. Though many may make the attempt with the best of intentions, even entering an institution that is dedicated to it, the lesson of this book is that it is only the unpredictable combination of a particular self with a particular environment that will bring the result.
The result is the state of sainthood, to be a mahatma or great soul, as Gandhi was named. In this book we see it in Mother Bianca. I use this word not to mean an exceptionally good person, though that can accompany reaching the state, but one who has arrived at a level of knowing beyond what most can reach. That we all could reach such a state I have no doubt because the possibility comes with consciousness, but that the right circumstances, the right environment, the right challenge for the particular individual will meet that individual during his or her life is unlikely. That the individual will know what environment to seek is virtually impossible - we simply do not know ourselves deeply enough beforehand to know the path we should follow that will awaken us.
As Erich Fromm so beautifully put it - the tragedy of humanity is not that we must die, but that most die before they are born.
If you, like me, are not religious, I particularly recommend this book because it reveals a positive side of religion that can be separated from the particular mythos of a particular faith. It takes you deep into the self, thousands of miles away from "just going to church" to what being is about through the process of "dying the death I must" as expressed in the book. From what little I know of Islam and Hinduism, I would be very surprised if adherents of both faiths would not find something familiar in this book.
We need to keep in mind that religions were not the creations of ignorant fools, but were the very best attempt that could be made before the advent of science to discover the foundation of the self behind the curtain of appearances and bodily sensations. That religions became encrusted with dogma or symbols or relics or procedures far removed from their origins should not blind us to the human imperative for understanding ourselves that prompted their creation.
March 23, 2007
I read this around the same time I read her The Gospel According to Woman, which I think allowed me to see how Armstrong's personal experience deeply shapes her reading of all the Christian writers she addresses in that book.
Through the Narrow Gate was a little like entering another world, and I think Armstrong does a good job of having the reader experience the sort of mind-wracking logic of religious life that she was exposed to. From what I can tell, it also seems to provide a good historical snapshot of many convents and their attempts to deal with the modern world right before the reforms of Vatican II came into place.
Through the Narrow Gate was a little like entering another world, and I think Armstrong does a good job of having the reader experience the sort of mind-wracking logic of religious life that she was exposed to. From what I can tell, it also seems to provide a good historical snapshot of many convents and their attempts to deal with the modern world right before the reforms of Vatican II came into place.
November 26, 2018
A fascinating revelation into what went on in this young girl's experience of life as a nun and the traumas she encountered while
November 14, 2008
I thought this book would be a general discussion of the author’s spiritual experience, but it is an honest-and painful-account of her entry into a convent at age 17. Her devout Catholic family tried to dissuade her, but she was strong-willed and wanted very much to have that perfect love of God above all else. This was in 1962 and she lasted in the order for six years before her physical and mental health broke.
Since rejoining the secular world, she earned her degree at Oxford, has written more than 20 books and was awarded the OBE. Two books she wrote I can highly recommend: The History of God and The Battle for God. Both books take a scholarly look at the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic hold on the Middle East.
Since rejoining the secular world, she earned her degree at Oxford, has written more than 20 books and was awarded the OBE. Two books she wrote I can highly recommend: The History of God and The Battle for God. Both books take a scholarly look at the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic hold on the Middle East.
March 25, 2014
I probably could write a long essay on this book, so I'll just do a few short remarks. This is a fascinating memoir of the author's life journey as a nun in a convent in England in the 60's prior to the modernization ( Vatican II) of the Catholic church. The training is arduous, and I came to feel that often times the wrong person was in a position of power over the postulants & novices. They were cold and often ruthless in their application of the Rules of the Order. Where was the compassion & love that God wants us to have for one another? I understood the stripping away of self to allow one to fully concentrate on the spiritual teachings, prayer and to be open to an intimate relationship with God, but the putting away of all things secular for years seemed to take it too far. Hygiene was neglected, illness was just one's lack of will and trusting in God, friendships even among one's fellow nuns were discouraged, no questioning of the Rules of the Order ( no allowance for using one's brain)...it all added up (to me) to denying the blessings and gifts God has provided to us. Thank goodness that type of training and thinking has changed.
It certainly increased my admiration of Nuns I have known in the past of that era, who were still able to be human & connected yet set apart by their devotion, sacrifice, and practice of their faith.
It certainly increased my admiration of Nuns I have known in the past of that era, who were still able to be human & connected yet set apart by their devotion, sacrifice, and practice of their faith.
June 2, 2015
This is the scholar Karen Armstrong's first book, and it is fascinating. I've always loved to read about people who live vastly different lives from my own, and so a 17-year-old British girl entering a convent seemed like it would be an excellent read. I wasn't disappointed. We know going into the book that Armstrong eventually left the convent, but we don't know why; honestly, in the last third or so of the book, I felt a lot of suspense as the plot was clearly headed in that direction but I had no idea what was going to be the final straw to make her leave. There were many nuns who treated her kindly and spoke of the mind as a valuable gift from God, but others (more directly "in charge" of Armstrong) made it clear that the mind had to absolutely die; the very SELF had to die, in order to achieve the ultimate closeness with God. Or something. I found that part very interesting as the concept of "dying to self" was familiar to me from my evangelical upbringing - though, of course, never taken to the extreme of Armstrong's Order. It was an interesting time for her to join the Order, just a few years before Vatican II, but at the end of the book she says that she believes she still would have ended up leaving if the convent had had Vatican II's reforms from the beginning. I would call it a very happy ending, which I was glad for, because Karen Armstrong suffers so much for so long before finally asking to be released from her vows. 4 stars and not 5 because it does get a little bit repetitive in the middle - but it's very much worth getting through.
July 15, 2013
Memoirs and autobiographies have never truly interested me. But with Armstrong it is another case entirely. It requires an unearthly amount of courage to write your own story. Kudos to the writer for being honest, objective and real.
Never could the concept and consequences of the utter division of the body and soul have been more beautifully and poignantly explained. Her plight wrenches the heart and completely sucks the reader into her world. The psychological workings of the human mind, the simultaneous not singular need of spirituality with physical affection, and a necessary knowledge of the mundane with the divine are all core issues at the heart of this book.
The reason behind Armstrong's violent fits of illness are not understood by the Sisters. They are attributed to mortal weakness caused by sin, severe displeasure of God or even an inadequacy to conform entirely to the spiritual side of life. While these reasons cannot be all ignored, they in turn ignore the essential human factor: emotions. Religion is important but one which provides a healthy balance of the natural and supernatural.
There are supposed mystics who deem similar patients to be possessed by the devil when in fact there are psychological demons at work. And the cure is not hid within chants and bead rattling and smoke but rather in a compassionate and empathetic understanding of people, the issues which society and the environment thrust upon them and the unraveling of a general principle: we are all ultimately alone and the best we can do is try and form human relationships.
Never could the concept and consequences of the utter division of the body and soul have been more beautifully and poignantly explained. Her plight wrenches the heart and completely sucks the reader into her world. The psychological workings of the human mind, the simultaneous not singular need of spirituality with physical affection, and a necessary knowledge of the mundane with the divine are all core issues at the heart of this book.
The reason behind Armstrong's violent fits of illness are not understood by the Sisters. They are attributed to mortal weakness caused by sin, severe displeasure of God or even an inadequacy to conform entirely to the spiritual side of life. While these reasons cannot be all ignored, they in turn ignore the essential human factor: emotions. Religion is important but one which provides a healthy balance of the natural and supernatural.
There are supposed mystics who deem similar patients to be possessed by the devil when in fact there are psychological demons at work. And the cure is not hid within chants and bead rattling and smoke but rather in a compassionate and empathetic understanding of people, the issues which society and the environment thrust upon them and the unraveling of a general principle: we are all ultimately alone and the best we can do is try and form human relationships.
September 29, 2013
Having read quite a few positive accounts of nuns' lives, I decided to balance it out with a rather less positive one. Karen Armstrong entered a very strict convent in the early 60s - pre Vatican II, as many nuns have pointed out when I've told them about this book. It was an unpleasant, oppressive experience for her in many ways - full of rigid, often illogical rules and a negative atmosphere, things like being forced to eat cheese even though it made her sick, being told to sew without a needle, and being chastised for talking back when she explained that she hadn't been able to sew because of the lack of needle. And having to actually beat herself. Not to mention the lechy old priest that comes on to her. But despite all this, in many ways it's a very inspiring, moving book, because she had a clarity of purpose and a real passion and determination in her spiritual journey.
She left the convent - she stuck it for seven years and eventually realised it wasn't for her. She was becoming ill with anxiety, and from not eating because of being sick from the cheese. I can't help wondering what would have happened if it had been a different community, with more love and wisdom, rather than rigidity and oppression. I suspect she may have stayed and enjoyed it and grown deeply in her faith. Even within this confining environment, it was still a rich spiritual experience for her - she says she wrote the book because her friends often joked about her time as a nun, and she wanted to show what a deep experience it was, and how it had shaped her.
She left the convent - she stuck it for seven years and eventually realised it wasn't for her. She was becoming ill with anxiety, and from not eating because of being sick from the cheese. I can't help wondering what would have happened if it had been a different community, with more love and wisdom, rather than rigidity and oppression. I suspect she may have stayed and enjoyed it and grown deeply in her faith. Even within this confining environment, it was still a rich spiritual experience for her - she says she wrote the book because her friends often joked about her time as a nun, and she wanted to show what a deep experience it was, and how it had shaped her.
April 13, 2022
This memoir sucked me in. It might be because I work in a Catholic school and I am fascinated by sisters and why they choose to become sisters. This book did not disappoint and it was so interesting to see how a girl (because she was literally 17 when she entered) went into one of the strictest convents in Europe and spent 7 years there. She had physical and mental health problems but part of being a nun is to overcome your physical and mental problems through strict discipline and making your ego die. I am glad that she did no suffer the torment of a priest like so many nuns have even though she did have a few uncomfortable situations with the priest in her order.
What I really took out of this book is that anyone is subject to doing extreme things if they believe that it will bring them closer to God. However, to torment yourself and live a life filled with guilt, unable to get your basic needs met because you are told it is hysteria or the devil makes is maddening. One thing is for sure, when you repress feelings they are bound to come out one way or another.
It is also interesting how she did not have a specific incident that made her want to leave the convent, she just knew. Listening to her own knowing is what I believe is God and she found that in her own way.
This was an excellent book and a great insight into the life of a nun in the 60s. It makes me interested in how things are different now. I know, for a fact, there are less nuns today than ever before. Many orders are way more lenient than the one Karen Armstrong entered but still, it takes a very particular person to dedicate their life to chastity, poverty and servitude.
What I really took out of this book is that anyone is subject to doing extreme things if they believe that it will bring them closer to God. However, to torment yourself and live a life filled with guilt, unable to get your basic needs met because you are told it is hysteria or the devil makes is maddening. One thing is for sure, when you repress feelings they are bound to come out one way or another.
It is also interesting how she did not have a specific incident that made her want to leave the convent, she just knew. Listening to her own knowing is what I believe is God and she found that in her own way.
This was an excellent book and a great insight into the life of a nun in the 60s. It makes me interested in how things are different now. I know, for a fact, there are less nuns today than ever before. Many orders are way more lenient than the one Karen Armstrong entered but still, it takes a very particular person to dedicate their life to chastity, poverty and servitude.
September 28, 2021
Excellent, excellent, excellent!! A wonderful memoir and stark inside look at becoming a nun in mid-20th-century Britain. Highly recommended.
October 12, 2012
Wow this is barely a review, it's just me rambling about myself. Tread carefully. And wow I haven't finish this. I have calculus homework to do haha, I'll finish it later.
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I bought this book at the bookstore at my university. There were carts just outside the store and I was wandering around campus because I had a midterm that evening. I stopped, and saw book carts parked outside with "$5 SALE" signs taped to the sides. the store and I absolutely could not resist going through those carts of books. I have to tell you that I'm a sucker for spines that have horizontal titles. It is the most beautiful sight ever. And when I saw that spine, I was entranced. Simple black serif font on light blue, ah, it was too much. And the sub-title was what really hooked me in, a memoir of life in and out of the convent. I brought it to the till immediately.
I'm a Catholic. A practicing Catholic but not to the point that I'm a pushy Catholic. We all know at least one. Actually, I don't. Does that mean I'm the pushy Catholic one? Probably. However I like to think that I'm not.
Anyway, I've only known one nun in my life. Well, two really, but the other one I did not know as personally. There was a nun at my (Catholic) high school, Sister Dorothy, but I've never had her for religion class. I've always wanted to be in a class with Sister but my schedule just never wanted it to be. Although I did have a deacon for religion, once. It was... Interesting.
She's not the nun I'm talking about.
When I was growing up my parents knew a nun and brought my brother and I to see her quite regularly. She was an elderly Filipino lady with curly white hair and thick square framed glasses. Sister Therese was her name. She didn't seem so different from any other religious fanatic that my parents knew. But I always interested about the life she lead. In my head, I always pictured nuns as tall pale billowly creatures and she obviously was't. I wasn't close to that nun. She moved to Montreal when I was finishing elementary school. But every year she would send me a birthday card (with religious context, of course). The cards haven't been coming for a couple of years now.
My curiosity about Sister Therese's possible life was the main factor in picking this book up. Not to mention that I'm currently feeling a bit lost since university started, especially spiritually. I want to strengthen my faith but I don't know how.
Every couple of months, my mother would participate in this program where a statue of the Virgin Mary would come into our home and we would pray the rosary every day for the duration of Her stay. The people who lead this program asked me if I was keeping up with my YFC (Youth for Christ) activities and I simply stated that I was too busy (the truth was that I didn't get along with anyone there and it made me feel pretty horrible about myself). The Brother there just looked at me disappointingly and made a comment to my mother about how most youth lose their faith once entering university. I was silently enraged. I would never do such a thing. I wanted to grow in my faith, if anything. But as stated before, I don't know how.
For some reason, I had some weird notion that maybe this book would help me. I did read the back about how it was an unsuccessful journey to the road to God but somehow, I had this weird hope.
I immediately fell in love with this book. I too am 17, like how Karen was at the beginning of the book. The 60s was a radically different time though. Even though I wasn't too surprised by the rigidity and torturous routine of the convent life, it was still hard to comprehend. Teens these days are so much more secular than back then. Despite going to a Catholic school, not a lot of my fellow classmates were actually Catholic. Most were atheists or agnostics who went to that school for friends or because their parents wanted them to go there.
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I bought this book at the bookstore at my university. There were carts just outside the store and I was wandering around campus because I had a midterm that evening. I stopped, and saw book carts parked outside with "$5 SALE" signs taped to the sides. the store and I absolutely could not resist going through those carts of books. I have to tell you that I'm a sucker for spines that have horizontal titles. It is the most beautiful sight ever. And when I saw that spine, I was entranced. Simple black serif font on light blue, ah, it was too much. And the sub-title was what really hooked me in, a memoir of life in and out of the convent. I brought it to the till immediately.
I'm a Catholic. A practicing Catholic but not to the point that I'm a pushy Catholic. We all know at least one. Actually, I don't. Does that mean I'm the pushy Catholic one? Probably. However I like to think that I'm not.
Anyway, I've only known one nun in my life. Well, two really, but the other one I did not know as personally. There was a nun at my (Catholic) high school, Sister Dorothy, but I've never had her for religion class. I've always wanted to be in a class with Sister but my schedule just never wanted it to be. Although I did have a deacon for religion, once. It was... Interesting.
She's not the nun I'm talking about.
When I was growing up my parents knew a nun and brought my brother and I to see her quite regularly. She was an elderly Filipino lady with curly white hair and thick square framed glasses. Sister Therese was her name. She didn't seem so different from any other religious fanatic that my parents knew. But I always interested about the life she lead. In my head, I always pictured nuns as tall pale billowly creatures and she obviously was't. I wasn't close to that nun. She moved to Montreal when I was finishing elementary school. But every year she would send me a birthday card (with religious context, of course). The cards haven't been coming for a couple of years now.
My curiosity about Sister Therese's possible life was the main factor in picking this book up. Not to mention that I'm currently feeling a bit lost since university started, especially spiritually. I want to strengthen my faith but I don't know how.
Every couple of months, my mother would participate in this program where a statue of the Virgin Mary would come into our home and we would pray the rosary every day for the duration of Her stay. The people who lead this program asked me if I was keeping up with my YFC (Youth for Christ) activities and I simply stated that I was too busy (the truth was that I didn't get along with anyone there and it made me feel pretty horrible about myself). The Brother there just looked at me disappointingly and made a comment to my mother about how most youth lose their faith once entering university. I was silently enraged. I would never do such a thing. I wanted to grow in my faith, if anything. But as stated before, I don't know how.
For some reason, I had some weird notion that maybe this book would help me. I did read the back about how it was an unsuccessful journey to the road to God but somehow, I had this weird hope.
I immediately fell in love with this book. I too am 17, like how Karen was at the beginning of the book. The 60s was a radically different time though. Even though I wasn't too surprised by the rigidity and torturous routine of the convent life, it was still hard to comprehend. Teens these days are so much more secular than back then. Despite going to a Catholic school, not a lot of my fellow classmates were actually Catholic. Most were atheists or agnostics who went to that school for friends or because their parents wanted them to go there.
January 22, 2023
Ik heb wel vaker gelezen over kloosters, maar zo’n inkijk als deze had ik nog nooit gehad. Het laat zien waar Karen naar verlangde, waarom ze zeven jaar lang bleef en hoe pijnlijk het was toen het echt niet meer ging. Het is geen aanklacht, maar een knap geschreven persoonlijk verhaal over een wereld die niet meer bestaat.
https://lalageleest.nl/2023/02/17/doo...
https://lalageleest.nl/2023/02/17/doo...
April 18, 2016
I've read one of the historical books by this author (Fields of Blood, dealing with violence and religion) and would like to read more. So when I ran across a copy of this book and saw the sub-title indicating this was her memoir of her time as a nun I was curious enough to pick it up.
Her story starts with her childhood so you gain some understanding why she decides to become a nun. Her childhood seems to be mostly pleasant in a decent middle class sort of way in England in the late 50s early 60s. Her parents were against her becoming a nun but as good Catholics and loving parents they allowed her to follow what she wanted to do and join a nunnery at the age of 17.
The process takes several years to complete. The order she joined teaches girls to lay aside their own thoughts and die to self. Fascinating as the author does a good job of getting your inside her head as she experiences the deprivation of the things that make us human and make humanity worthwhile in an effort to sacrifice that part of herself to become a good nun. For example, one of the things they were taught was that they needed to train themselves to stop enjoying food (a worldly rather than spiritual pleasure). So they needed to avoid the things they really might enjoy when they were served and take second helpings of the things they didn't like.
The process of becoming a nun has changed since this book was written. So it's isn't necessarily the best thing to read if you want to know what it's like now. But from a historical perspective it certainly is valuable along with being an interesting story.
Her story starts with her childhood so you gain some understanding why she decides to become a nun. Her childhood seems to be mostly pleasant in a decent middle class sort of way in England in the late 50s early 60s. Her parents were against her becoming a nun but as good Catholics and loving parents they allowed her to follow what she wanted to do and join a nunnery at the age of 17.
The process takes several years to complete. The order she joined teaches girls to lay aside their own thoughts and die to self. Fascinating as the author does a good job of getting your inside her head as she experiences the deprivation of the things that make us human and make humanity worthwhile in an effort to sacrifice that part of herself to become a good nun. For example, one of the things they were taught was that they needed to train themselves to stop enjoying food (a worldly rather than spiritual pleasure). So they needed to avoid the things they really might enjoy when they were served and take second helpings of the things they didn't like.
The process of becoming a nun has changed since this book was written. So it's isn't necessarily the best thing to read if you want to know what it's like now. But from a historical perspective it certainly is valuable along with being an interesting story.
March 18, 2012
I love Armstrong's books and her memoirs are especially important for several reasons. First because the world needs more woman's spiritual narratives. Second, the honesty of how a serious spiritualist faces the rituals and dogma of faith and wrestles them down within their actual life experience is edifying and can inform our own journey.
As a spiritual activist for women's rights in secular, as well as religious and spiritual, worlds, I'm grateful Armstrong is forthright. More women need to do the same.
On the subject of Ms. Armstrong's research and writing as a religious scholar I wrote her about the glaring omission of the world's forth monotheism in her books. Bhakti, the Path of the Heart, India's mystic path, is a beacon for empowering women--and men who recognize that the Soul's nature is based in a feminine psychology, character, and emotional expression--to stop oppression and abuse of women in secular and spiritual settings and allow true religion and spirituality to be released from masculine worldviews and management and exalted back to their true essence.
Here's my exchange with Ms. Armstrong: Letter exchange with Karen Armstrong.
As a spiritual activist for women's rights in secular, as well as religious and spiritual, worlds, I'm grateful Armstrong is forthright. More women need to do the same.
On the subject of Ms. Armstrong's research and writing as a religious scholar I wrote her about the glaring omission of the world's forth monotheism in her books. Bhakti, the Path of the Heart, India's mystic path, is a beacon for empowering women--and men who recognize that the Soul's nature is based in a feminine psychology, character, and emotional expression--to stop oppression and abuse of women in secular and spiritual settings and allow true religion and spirituality to be released from masculine worldviews and management and exalted back to their true essence.
Here's my exchange with Ms. Armstrong: Letter exchange with Karen Armstrong.
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August 20, 2012I have read most of Karen Armstrong's books on the history of religion and admired her combination of scholarly research and clarity. Although I realized she was once a cloistered nun, I never know her story. While Mods and Rockers were frolicking and the counter culture was ramping up in the England of the 1960's, the author was doing her best to adapt to the rules of her order. She sincerely attempted to become obedient and submissive but endured inexplicable seizures because of the internal conflicts of her situation. The authorities dismissed her episodes as simple attention getting behavior. Fortunately, Karen's intellectual gifts were spotted even after she took her vows so she was allowed to study at Oxford. Her intense devotion to scholarship and study brought her to the attention of her instructors and ultimately an intervention made it impossible for her to continue with her vows. The memoir is engaging, honest and reveals the rigidity of the Church's practices before Vatican II, as well as Karen's heroic efforts to comply with her vows. I'm grateful that her particular gifts were saved and that she able could produce her inspiring body of work.
July 17, 2014
4 STARS
"Through the Narrow Gate is Karen Armstrong’s intimate memoir of life inside a Catholic convent. With honesty and clarity, she explains what drove her at age seventeen to devote herself to God. Over the next seven years, she endures the difficulties of convent life — the enforced silence, the lack of friendship and family, her own guilt at not being able to stifle her voracious intelligence — and unveils the secrets of religious life during the post–Vatican II years." (From Amazon)
A great writer! I love this memoir as it is honest and acknowledges her biases. A young Karen wants to be a nun in the 1960s and this is her journey in and out of the habit. She manages to call out the cliches and acknowledges the stereotypes. This is not just for those interested in religion. It is about finding yourself and what it all means. This is the first of two memoirs.
"Through the Narrow Gate is Karen Armstrong’s intimate memoir of life inside a Catholic convent. With honesty and clarity, she explains what drove her at age seventeen to devote herself to God. Over the next seven years, she endures the difficulties of convent life — the enforced silence, the lack of friendship and family, her own guilt at not being able to stifle her voracious intelligence — and unveils the secrets of religious life during the post–Vatican II years." (From Amazon)
A great writer! I love this memoir as it is honest and acknowledges her biases. A young Karen wants to be a nun in the 1960s and this is her journey in and out of the habit. She manages to call out the cliches and acknowledges the stereotypes. This is not just for those interested in religion. It is about finding yourself and what it all means. This is the first of two memoirs.
June 19, 2014
An extraordinary book, really. A women's journey through her teen years committed to an institution that tried to erase her humanity and failed. One learns about rules, practices and traditions in the process of becoming a nun that have no grounding in reality, or even in scripture. So many rules and customs invented long ago by misogynistic men with complete disregard for the human need for compassion, friendship, and community with others. The author struggles with these feelings and the church's demands that she suppress them, and we cringe at the ignorance of the institution committed to ancient, absurd rules and practices. In the end the author's inability to continue in her quest to become a nun is not her failure, but rather a failure of the institution. Highly recommended.
May 23, 2017
Thoughtful book about her experience going through the nunnery process when she was 17 in the 60s, before a lot of the reform of the process came through. A struggle of self, denial of self and the ultimate realization that it was too much for her and too much denial of the things that God gave her as unique gifts to her.
I think worse happened to her that she only hints about here, but she tried to show both the good and the bad and didn't want the bad to throw off the balance.
My heart went out to her when she did decide to leave, not knowing or understanding the culture and being out of the world for 7 years. I'm hoping her next book talks about that process some, I'm really interested in how she adjusted and how she got to where she is now.
I think worse happened to her that she only hints about here, but she tried to show both the good and the bad and didn't want the bad to throw off the balance.
My heart went out to her when she did decide to leave, not knowing or understanding the culture and being out of the world for 7 years. I'm hoping her next book talks about that process some, I'm really interested in how she adjusted and how she got to where she is now.
January 15, 2008
Karen Armstrong is a former nun and a well-regarded writer on religious topics. This is a memoir of seven years of her life spent in a Jesuit convent. Armstrong mentions that this is a complete re-write of a book she tried earlier...but it was too bitter for publication. Her emotions are still quite raw and she paints a brutal picture of convent life as seen through the eyes of a very young, very naive, very sad candidate for the cloistered life. It's a painful book to read and some parts of it are moving, but you're left with the feeling that Ms. Armstrong hasn't yet achieved the emotional distance to write an accurate portrayal of these events.
June 19, 2017
Illuminating read about the experiences of Ms Armstrong when she embarked on life as a nun to when she left. Fascinating and tragic to see how much was expected of those who desired to live that sort of life back at that time and how much they gave up not just materialistically or physically but emotionally, mentally and in her case intellectually.
March 11, 2009
This is a memoir of a pre-vatican II nun. O my I loved all of the gory details. Unfortunately I was very interested in finding reasons to become a nun and other reasons to turn my mind off etc. So. This book does not those grant. I mean, this is sensible food for your "I will just drop out and become a nun" fantasy. Soooo.
March 25, 2010
The precursor to The Spiral Staircase. Hastily written, I think Armstrong even acknowledges that herself in her latter memoir. Nothing brilliantly poignant, and it particularly omits the detailed description of and critical factor in Armstrong's religious aptitude and fainting spells: temporal lobe epilepsy.
November 22, 2022
Through the Narrow Gate is a look into a world that I know nothing about; the life of a nun in a strict Catholic order. Karen Armstrong was a nun for seven years before she left, and this book is a generous and honest attempt to reckon with those years.
Armstrong enters the sisterhood in the years before Vatican II, which evidently relaxed some of the rules that the nuns live by. Armstrong does outstanding work in making clear her intense desire to fully know and serve God, her commitment to her superiors in the order, and also self-erasure and general dreariness of the life that is ultimately supposed to bring her to closeness with God.
She writes with great discipline, at every turn striving to present the often petty and inexplicable actions of her superiors in the best light. It's a book that's critical of the sisterhood in many ways but it is not a scorched earth campaign. In the end, there is a voice inside her that will not agree that inhuman behavior and unnecessary suffering are requisites to making herself the instrument of God that she wishes to be. Though Armstrong herself would not likely not put it this way, it's an account of the sisterhood breaking people, and then having the gall to tell them that their brokenness has brought them close to God. If God has given me my mind, can it be wrong to use it, she reasonably asks.
Though many readers, myself included, may feel a healthy degree of anger on Armstrong's behalf, it is really the work of someone who is torn almost in half by the decisions she ends up making. There's not much in the way of loud theatrical scenes or the like, but plenty of quiet and tense deliberation.
Armstrong has of course gone on to write a number of well-received books on religion and is one of our foremost popular authors on the subject, but his was the first I have read of her. It's an honest and truthful account, gripping in its own understated way.
Armstrong enters the sisterhood in the years before Vatican II, which evidently relaxed some of the rules that the nuns live by. Armstrong does outstanding work in making clear her intense desire to fully know and serve God, her commitment to her superiors in the order, and also self-erasure and general dreariness of the life that is ultimately supposed to bring her to closeness with God.
She writes with great discipline, at every turn striving to present the often petty and inexplicable actions of her superiors in the best light. It's a book that's critical of the sisterhood in many ways but it is not a scorched earth campaign. In the end, there is a voice inside her that will not agree that inhuman behavior and unnecessary suffering are requisites to making herself the instrument of God that she wishes to be. Though Armstrong herself would not likely not put it this way, it's an account of the sisterhood breaking people, and then having the gall to tell them that their brokenness has brought them close to God. If God has given me my mind, can it be wrong to use it, she reasonably asks.
Though many readers, myself included, may feel a healthy degree of anger on Armstrong's behalf, it is really the work of someone who is torn almost in half by the decisions she ends up making. There's not much in the way of loud theatrical scenes or the like, but plenty of quiet and tense deliberation.
Armstrong has of course gone on to write a number of well-received books on religion and is one of our foremost popular authors on the subject, but his was the first I have read of her. It's an honest and truthful account, gripping in its own understated way.
June 9, 2020
Karen Armstrong recounts her early quest for God from childhood to convent’s life and beyond. She wrote this in 1980, 11 years after leaving her Order.
August 7, 2025
Interesting and engaging memoir of a young English girl joining a religious order at 17.
April 1, 2021
Karen Armstrong is considered to be a religious scholar. She lectures widely and participates in panel discussions with the “brightest and best” religious leaders with wide ecumenical leanings. I am glad to read this early biography of her “religious roots”. It helps me understand her perspective and why she has studied, searched and grasped for meaning in this life. She entered a convent as a teenager, which had a tremendous impact on her life. I have read other works of hers, and quite frankly, despite her keen intelligence I consider her to be off-base in many ways. She has cast her net so far and wide that I don’t think she has any true deep convictions at all. Do I dare say that intellectualism has become her religion?
July 28, 2019
This memoir is quite harrowing and often difficult to read because of the abuses Armstrong suffered in the convent. But I resonated with her quest to be near the sacred and to have an identity founded in God.
May 11, 2025
A moving memoir by a woman who joined a convent but found she was ill suited. Strong recommend; I've never read anything quite like this before.
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