Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery by Karen Armstrong

Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery by Karen Armstrong

Original Title: Through the Narrow Gate ISBN: 0312340958 ISBN13: 9780312340957 Autor: Karen Armstrong

Rating: 4.8 of 5 stars (2814) counts Original Format: Paperback, 304 pages Download Format: PDF, TXT, ePub, iBook. Published: February 19th 2005 / by St. Martin's Griffin / (first published January 1st 1981) Language: English Genre(s): Religion- 72 users Autobiography >Memoir- 63 users Nonfiction- 51 users Biography- 35 users Spirituality- 23 users Religion >Christianity- 11 users Religion >Theology- 10 users Biography >Autobiography- 8 users Religion >Faith- 7 users Biography Memoir- 6 users

Description: Through the Narrow Gate is Karen Armstrong's intimate memoir of life inside a Catholic convent. With refreshing honesty and clarity, the book takes readers on a revelatory adventure that begins with Armstrong's decision in the course of her spiritual training offers a fascinating view into a shrouded religious life, and a vivid, moving account of the spiritual coming age of one of our most loved and respected interpreters of religious.

About Author:

British author of numerous works on comparative religion. Elsewhere:

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Other Editions:

- Through the Narrow Gate (Paperback)

- Through the Narrow Gate: A Nun\'s Story: A Memoir of Convent Life (Paperback)

- Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery (Paperback)

- Through the Narrow Gate (Hardcover)

- Through the Narrow Gate: A Nun\'s Story: A Memoir of Convent Life (Kindle Edition)

Books By Author:

- A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

- Islam: A Short History

- The Case for God

- The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness

- The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism

Books In The Series: Related Books On Our Site:

- Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery

- Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life

- Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life

- An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order

- The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage

- At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst

- Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion

- The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

- God Took Me by the Hand: A Story of God's Unusual Providence

- Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

- Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings

- Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative Life

- A Whole New Life: An Illness and a Healing

- A Time to Keep Silence

- Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return To His Jewish Family

- Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality

- Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

- Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns

Rewiews:

Jun 10, 2008 Ronda Rated it: really liked it 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 inc 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. 6 likes

Clif do you think it is a tragedy? My impression was that she found herself and was off to the challenge of living in "the world" with the warm companionsh do you think it is a tragedy? My impression was that she found herself and was off to the challenge of living in "the world" with the warm companionship available that she had longed for in the convent.

Apr 08, 2012 06:36AM

M.j. Radosevich Concur with your review...sad commentary regarding her religious life experiences . Did not relate to my direct experiences with many sisters of vario Concur with your review...sad commentary regarding her religious life experiences . Did not relate to my direct experiences with many sisters of various US communities. I wonder if Armstrong's personal illnesses played a more significant role in the depth of her negative reaction to both the harsh UK convent community rather than a false call or vocation to religious life?

Jan 17, 2016 07:27PM