Ye of little faith

I recently read The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong. I have known about this author for some time because of my general interest in the study of religion, but for one reason or another I have never read any of her books. I fully intend to now, since I was captivated by her writing style and perspective in this volume of memoir.

The book details the years from 1969 to the present, basically the 35 years it took her to recover from her 7 years in the convent. I won't go into the whole story here, since she tells it much better than I ever could, but her story is very compelling. Throughout the book, she is immersed in academic scholarship, the social changes that were occurring in the late 1960s-early 1970s, and issues of her own faith. Eventually she also writes about her discovery of other religions which, perhaps not surprisingly, she had absolutely no experience of during her immersion in Catholicism, and which surprised and delighted her. Since 2001 she has been increasingly involved in writing and lecturing about Islam, attempting to enlighten a largely ignorant public about the spiritual customs of Islam, which have become obscured (or never were available) by the political extremism of Islamic nations.

I definitely have an interest in this latter issue, but what originally grabbed me about this book was something she mentions quite late in the narrative, which was something that struck her about the difference between Judaism and Christianity (or perhaps I should specify Catholicism), when she begins to learn about Judaism. I probably will not do it justice here but the basic principle was that Judaism is a religion about good and right actions, without a lot of theology and doctrine, whereas Catholicism is all about the doctrine and not so much about the actions. In theory it is, since there's all that stuff about "love thy neighbour" and "turn the other cheek" and stuff, but the history and reality of Christianity is just the opposite. At least, that was Karen Armstrong's experience. Actually one thing that stayed with me throughout the reading of this book was something she said about convent life early on. She said that friendly relationships between the girls were discouraged, because they needed to save all their love for God. This struck me as so very wrong, like, how could anyone be devoted to a God that insisted that all love must be devoted to him. It made me really angry and sad.

So where is all this going. Well, I guess her later insights into the differences between the Christian life and the Jewish life made me kind of proud to identify as a Jew, even though I don't really practice a "Jewish" way of life. In fact, I felt a little sad that I'd kind of missed out on being able to have a Jewish life. Then I started wondering whether going to temple and having a marrow-deep understanding of the rituals and celebrations of Judaism really defined a Jew. After all, what Karen Armstrong identified as a Jewish way of life doesn't necessarily have to depend on those observances. It's how you conduct yourself through your daily life and interact with your fellow humans.

Which all inspired me to be a better person and put as much positive energy into the world as I could, in the hopes that it would help others feel better and be more positive. Ultimately that is probably a naive hope, and the cynical side of me, the devil on my shoulder I suppose, is whispering in my ear even now that I shouldn't waste a bunch of energy on a hopeless project like that because I'll just wind up frustrated and more sad. I think I'll have to work on it though, because even if the only person who feels better is me, it will be a worthwhile exercise.