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The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness
The Spiral Staircase My Climb Out of Darkness
Author: Karen Armstrong
In 1962, at age seventeen, Karen Armstrong entered a convent, eager to meet God. After seven brutally unhappy years as a nun, she left her order to pursue English literature at Oxford. But convent life had profoundly altered her, and coping with the outside world and her expiring faith proved to be excruciating. Her deep solitude and a terrifyin...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780385721271
ISBN-10: 0385721277
Publication Date: 2/22/2005
Pages: 336
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 37

3.4 stars, based on 37 ratings
Publisher: Anchor
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on + 145 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
A very enjoyable read about a nun who enters the convent at a very young age and then struggles miserably for seven years and leaves. She enters Oxford but still struggles, seemingly with mental illness, later diagnosed epilepsy. She shares her story of faith to atheism and back to faith again. This one came highly recommended by a friend and I'm glad she told me to read it. 4 stars.
bombschell avatar reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on + 214 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
You do not have to have enjoyed, or even read, Karen Armstrong's books on theology to find some meaning in this tale of her life after leaving the convent. I personally found her search for meaning very helpful-it resonates with me. She struggled to overcome her years in the convent but discovered those years have profoundly shaped her and let her become what she is today.
reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I did not exactly find this book "unputdownable", as one of the reviews inside the cover claims. I expected it to have more theological discussion, but she doesn't get into that until the last few chapters.
confundido avatar reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on
Helpful Score: 3
Wonderful.
If hope and faith are grounded on belief in doctrine, what happens when belief begins to crumble?
Armstrong struggles with this question and more with a recounting of the four decades of her adult spiritual life, starting in the tumult of the sixties and bringing us to the tumult of the post-9/11 world. During this time, she explores the importance of belief, doctrine, obedience, and hope in matters of faith, juxtaposing her Christian experience with personal discoveries she garnishes from Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam -- All this before the haunting backdrop of the words of T S Eliot, "Because I do not hope to turn gain / I do not hope..." (Ash Wednesday 1) Armstrong recounts her fall from faith, her climb from a personal darkness, her loss of hope, and how she later reclaimed it, becoming a world-renown religious scholar in the process.
reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I enjoyed the book very much! I was a nun for 21 years, and thought I left without any lingering issues....now I'm not so sure...very thought provoking. Now I'm reading History of God by KA --she's GOOD!
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reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on + 3 more book reviews
Excellent book by an exceptional woman who overcame many difficulties to become a major academic authority on religion. She is an interesting writer and her life has been remarkable.
ShawnMarie avatar reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on + 78 more book reviews
A very intense book, follow up to Through the Narrow Gate.
reviewed The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness on + 24 more book reviews
Karen Armstrong has written many important contemporary books on world religions. This book takes us on her personal journey. It is highly readable and provides great insight into spirituality/organized religion and how Armstrong came to her unique perspective.


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