armstrongkaren.jpgFar be it from me to judge Karen Armstrong, but I am going to give her memoir, The Spiral Staircase, a rave review anyway! This memoir of Armstrong’s life after leaving seven years as a nun in a convent behind is an amazing book that will resonate with anyone who has felt disappointment or grief. It’s amazing that someone who is the world’s greatest living Islamic scholar suffered so many setbacks.


Rather than try to summarize the book, I am going to let Karen speak for herself. Below are a few of my favorite sentences. I think you will agree that Karen is unmatched in her ability to describe feelings, events, and history.

[On the effects of war] “Postwar Britain was not an easy place to grow up. We may have defeated Hitler, but the war had ruined us.” (viii)

[On a love of reading and study] “. . . sometimes I could feel a text calling to me, and I was able to reply.” (164)

0375413189.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg[On the nuns and the convent] “Despite all my negative feelings about religion, I still felt protective about the nuns and still felt sorrow and regret for a lost ideal. I still mourned the girl I had been, with her sense of high adventure, the hope and the crazy optimism that had led me into the religious life.” (166)

[Implications for the War on Terror?] “. . .the traumatic experience of two world wars, fought on European soil, had left a legacy of unanswered questions . . . The old ways had been dismantled, but as yet nothing new had appeared to take their place. Traditional boundaries and markers had come down, and many lacked a clear sense of identity.” (203)

[The burden of being talented but complicated] “But had I really wanted to be ordinary; had I really wanted what T.S. Eliot had called ‘the usual reign'” . . . I couldn’t have it both ways. And now, here I was again, heading into the unknown, and yet I felt in some strange way as though I were back on track. The bus was taking me away from my nice safe job [from which she had been basically fired], but it seemed to be going in the right direction.” (222-223)

[The beauty of nature and landscape] “With my ears popping as we passed sea level and continued our descent to the Dead Sea, the deepest spot in the world, I gazed at the extraordinary beauty of the desert and felt moved as I had never been before by any landscape. I could not drag my eyes away from it and felt a great silence opening within me. There were no words and no thoughts; it was enough simply to be there.” (241)

[On the Crusaders] They had killed, maimed, burned, desecrated, and destroyed what they were pyschologically incapable of understanding.” (257)

[On God] ” . . . I felt that God and I had unfinished business — even though I didn’t believe that he existed.” (267)

0345384563.01._SCTZZZZZZZ_.jpg[On religious rebels and religious conformity] “Blind obedience and unthinking acceptance of authority figures may make an institution work more smoothly, but the people who live under such a regime will remain in an infantile, dependent state. It is a great pity that religious institutions often insist on this type of conformity, which is far from the spirit of their founders, who all, in one way or another, rebelled against the status quo.” (271)

[On how to deal with nasty people, Jesus style] “So I am still a flawed, insecure human being who doesn’t like it when people bruise my ego. But this is valuable too . . . this more abrasive type of encounter is a reminder that you must not practice the spirituality of empathy simply in order to get something for yourself. I am sure that this is what Jesus meant when he told people to love their enemies. You have to be prepared to extend your compassionate interest when there is no hope of a return.” (299)