Author: Karen Armstrong
This is a wonderful book. After I had read the library copy, I just had to have my own, so I bought it through Amazon.
At the age of 17, in 1969, Karen Armstrong entered a Roman Catholic convent. She left it seven years later. The experience virtually destroyed her ability to think, left her almost bereft of the ability to operate as an individual with a personality and she had completely lost her faith. This book is her autobiographical account of her “climb out of darkness” (the sub-title of the book). It is a moving account of her struggle against despair, discouragement, set-backs and a long battle to get the right medical diagnosis and treatment. She was eventually diagnosed with epilepsy and has received proper treatment, which marked a significant turning point in her life. (How could the medical profession of the day have been so thick?? I would like to think that anyone with even a modicum of medical knowledge, on hearing an account of her symptoms, would instantly recognise epilepsy).
She then began the writing career which has resulted in TV programmes and a substantial number of scholarly books on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism - (see other reviews on this site). In the process, she embarked on her own spiritual journey, which resulted in her discovering a faith far different from that which she left. Her story is sad, heartbreaking, sometimes very funny but ultimately uplifting and inspiring. I have often recommended it to people who are undertaking their own journey out of darkness.
Karen’s books can be bought from Amazon. Read more about Karen on Wiki.
