The precursor to the bestselling The Spiral Staircase comes Karen Armstrong’s classic memoir of her life as a young woman in a convent.
Through the Narrow Gate is Karen Armstrong’s intimate memoir of life inside a Catholic convent. With honesty and clarity, she explains what drove her at age seventeen to devote herself to God. Over the next seven years, she endures the difficulties of convent life—the enforced silence, the lack of friendship and family, her own guilt at not being able to stifle her voracious intelligence—and unveils the secrets of religious life during the post–Vatican II years.
Through the Narrow Gate is a moving account of a young woman’s search for God and the experiences that put Karen Armstrong on her way to becoming one of the most admired and most respected interpreters of religious faith.
“The most full and honest book that I’ve read on this subject.” —Mary McCarthy, author of Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
“A scrupulous record of one woman’s spiritual journey, excellently written and profoundly moving." —Cosmopolitan
“An emotive, spiritually intimate, and often quite moving memoir . . . written with affection, some humour, and bittersweet regret.” —Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Karen Armstrong:
“Karen Armstrong is a genius.” —A. N. Wilson, author of Jesus: A Life
“Armstrong has a dazzling ability: she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to the fundamentals, without oversimplifying.” —The Sunday Times
“Armstrong is a lucid writer with a knack for synthesizing vast quantities of research. Formidable learning and a clear analytical eye.” —The Globe and Mail
KAREN ARMSTRONG is the author of numerous books on religious affairs, including The Case for God, A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha and The Great Transformation, as well as a memoir, The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. In 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public, and crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The charter was launched globally in the fall of 2009. In 2013 Armstrong was awarded the British Academy's inaugural Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding and in 2017 the Princess of Asturias Prize for Social Sciences. She lives in London.
View titles by Karen Armstrong
The precursor to the bestselling The Spiral Staircase comes Karen Armstrong’s classic memoir of her life as a young woman in a convent.
Through the Narrow Gate is Karen Armstrong’s intimate memoir of life inside a Catholic convent. With honesty and clarity, she explains what drove her at age seventeen to devote herself to God. Over the next seven years, she endures the difficulties of convent life—the enforced silence, the lack of friendship and family, her own guilt at not being able to stifle her voracious intelligence—and unveils the secrets of religious life during the post–Vatican II years.
Through the Narrow Gate is a moving account of a young woman’s search for God and the experiences that put Karen Armstrong on her way to becoming one of the most admired and most respected interpreters of religious faith.
Praise
“The most full and honest book that I’ve read on this subject.” —Mary McCarthy, author of Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
“A scrupulous record of one woman’s spiritual journey, excellently written and profoundly moving." —Cosmopolitan
“An emotive, spiritually intimate, and often quite moving memoir . . . written with affection, some humour, and bittersweet regret.” —Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Karen Armstrong:
“Karen Armstrong is a genius.” —A. N. Wilson, author of Jesus: A Life
“Armstrong has a dazzling ability: she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to the fundamentals, without oversimplifying.” —The Sunday Times
“Armstrong is a lucid writer with a knack for synthesizing vast quantities of research. Formidable learning and a clear analytical eye.” —The Globe and Mail
KAREN ARMSTRONG is the author of numerous books on religious affairs, including The Case for God, A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha and The Great Transformation, as well as a memoir, The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. In 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public, and crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The charter was launched globally in the fall of 2009. In 2013 Armstrong was awarded the British Academy's inaugural Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding and in 2017 the Princess of Asturias Prize for Social Sciences. She lives in London.
View titles by Karen Armstrong
