The Spiral Staircase

This is the JUNE book of the month. The book club meets on Thursday June 26th at Joseph-Beth Book Sellers at 7 p.m.

You might know of Karen Armstrong from her scholarly works dealing with the history or interactions of various religions. At age 17 she became a nun, but left the order about 6 years later, and then went on to work on a PhD in English at Oxford. She is a prolific writer, and her first installment of her memoir was Through the Narrow Gate - an account of her years as a nun. Her true acclaim really didn't arrive until her scholarly works on religions. I highly recommend her historical analysis of the books of the bible, called The Bible. She is highly regarded for her books on Christianity, but even more so for her writings on the Muslim and Jewish religions, and the changing nature of world religions. To read more about her religious writings - check out this SALON.com blog.

The Spiral Staircase is actually the third installment in her personal account about looking for answers to faith and the presence of God, but there is an ongoing theme of looking for herself and her place in the larger world. She battled with many demons, including a medical system that dismissed her classic symptoms of Epilepsy as "histrionics" and her inability to pass her doctoral dissertation at Oxford as her intellectual failure as opposed to her political failure. This is a fascinating "coming of age story" which uses religion as the background, but ultimately, it's about self confidence.

ReadingGroupGuides writes:
In her own mind she was a complete failure: as a nun, as an academic, and as a normal woman capable of intimacy. Her future seemed very much in question until she stumbled into comparative theology. What she found, in learning, thinking, and writing about other religions, was the ecstasy and transcendence she had never felt as a nun. Gripping, revelatory, and inspirational, The Spiral Staircase is an extraordinary account of an astonishing spiritual journey.

The Spirituality and Practice Book Review blog says The Spiral Staircase "picks up" where Through the Narrow Gate left off after Armstrong had left Oxford, failing to finish her doctoral dissertation, and struggling to control her mind and body - as the epilepsy was taking over, but she didn't know that.

In the title, Armstrong is referring to TS Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday" and the constantly twisting and turning nature of her search for faith, truth, understanding and answers - none of which will substitute of the other, and all of which seem to hound her for her attention.