Beginning the World

by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong relived her seven years as a nun in Through the Narrow Gate, a compelling depiction of the cloistered life that received widespread acclaim. Now she returns with the even more fascinating account of her life, after leaving the convent, the story of a young woman of twenty-four totally unprepared for the shock of confronting the real world. Writing with both sensitivity and wit, Karen describes the agonies of adjustment to a world in which people touched each other, laughed, drank wine...made love. She tells of her painful realization that her body and even her mind were resisting the changes she was imposing on them, to the point that she began to doubt her sanity. But she also writes of the tenderness of friendship and the awakening of passion, the growing understanding that the soul could not be saved at the expense of the body.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Religion, Spirituality

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Karen Armstrong is a British author and commentator of Irish Catholic descent known for her books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical Christian faith. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, while in the convent and graduated in English. She left the convent in 1969. Her work focuses on commonalities of the major religions, such as the importance of compassion and the Golden Rule.
Armstrong received the US$100,000 TED Prize in February 2008. She used that occasion to call for the creation of a Charter for Compassion, which was unveiled the following year.

Reviews

[Shulamit "Shulie" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Armstrong has more than one memoir of her story of leaving the convent and her own search for G-d, so if you are fascinated by the process of creating biography she's an interesting author to look at. In one of them, she even discusses the different approaches she took to sharing the same story, explaining why certain episodes were left out or embellished, for example. Beginning The World is an interesting read, but may be a little boring for someone looking for titillating tales of nuns gone wild in a secular world. Armstrong's story is more about finding G-d in unexpected places, as much as it is about her journey to find competent medical help. To be sure, there is one sex scene, although it's shocking for reasons other than it involved a former nun's loss of her virginity. My favourite parts had to do with her experiences with graduate studies in English literature and her struggles with mental health, both of which have been major features of my life. At one point, her friend tells her that she should embrace her depression because there is great freedom there, and she would be able to harness the bravery that comes from it to do great things. "Because if you're that depressed then nothing matters any more. You've got nothing to lose. Have you? Name me one thing you're afraid of losing when you're really depressed." (161) I was also struck by the way in which she conceptualized G-d and described her encounters with that Being, since they were similar to my own. Her friend asks her if she feels if she's sometimes "on the brink of something else. Something just out of sight which is absolutely mind-blowing. And terrifying." (161) She says, "I always thought it was G-d." The reader may wonder, along with Karen, when she does have some mind-blowing experiences how much of it is G-d, and how much of it is just the human brain. I know that when I have had psychedelic events they could have been described in the same terms that she uses for her own G-d events. Armstrong's book doesn't preach, but leaves you with a sense of wonder about the human longing for G-d.

[Roz Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest, fascinating account of a nun who loses her vocation. After this I developed a bit of a taste for books by reformed nuns.

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it. The doctoral bit was a shocker: machinations behind the scenes!

[Shirley Fessel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as dramatic or satisfying as her Spiral Staircase, the book nonetheless allowd the reader to understand the effects of moving in time travel, which is what Armstrong experienced when she entered society after leaving the convent.

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this, as I've enjoyed some of her non-biographical work. But the writing style put me off completely.