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Title details for The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong - Available

The Spiral Staircase

My Climb Out of Darkness

by Karen Armstrong
(c) 2005 Chautauqua Institution
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

For years she was tagged the "runaway nun," the rebellious ex-Catholic with outspoken opinions about religion--comparing, for example, Pope John Paul II to a Muslim fundamentalist. Now, with her 12th book, Islam, a Short History, Karen Armstrong has changed her image. She can still be sharp-tongued, inclined to draw conclusions that get a rise out of critics. But something closer to reconciliation, rather than anger, is propelling her. The title of this lecture is, "The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness."

  • Creators

  • Series

    CLSC Book Club

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 1, 2004

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • File size: 23040 KB
      • Duration: 00:47:59

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This account of Karen Armstrong's spiritual and psychological journey is so detailed, and winds down so many different passages, that it's hard to imagine anyone besides the author reading it successfully. Only she knows precisely how the different stages in her life affected her, and honestly, this may be a better work for the ear than the eye. Armstrong's delivery is habitually reserved, portraying the emotional reserve trained into her when she was a nun, but passion and humor repeatedly break through. When Armstrong has a story to tell, she performs it with glee, mimicking voices and nearly bellowing. The result is quite accessible. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 1, 2004
      In 1969, British writer Armstrong (The Battle for God, etc.) entered a Roman Catholic convent, smitten by the desire to"find God." She was 17 years old at the time--too young, she recognizes now, to have made such a momentous decision. Armstrong's 1981 memoir Through the Narrow Gate described her frustrating, lonely experience of cloistered life and her decision, at 24, to renounce her vows. In its sequel, Beginning the World (1983), she tried to explain her readjustment to the secular world--and failed."It is the worst book I have ever written," she declares in the preface to this new volume:"it was far too soon to write about those years";"it was not a truthful account";"I was...told to present myself in as positive and lively a light as possible." The true story, which she relates in this second sequel, was far more conflicted and intellectually vibrant. Her departure from the convent, she writes, actually made her quite sad; she was"constantly wracked by a very great regret" and suffering on top of it with the symptoms of undiagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy. How she emerged from such darkness to make a career as a writer whose books honor spiritual concerns while maintaining intellectual freedom and rigor--this is Armstrong's real concern, and the one that will be of most interest to the fans of her many acclaimed works.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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