Items21The creator’s order
  1. 1The Spiral Staircase (2004)The Spiral Staircase (2004)Published Jan 1, 2004Karen Armstrong left a Catholic convent as a young woman and found that the questions she had brought there followed her outside. Her account stays with the years when she had to find work and a place in ordinary life. Read it for the time it can take to recognize what a former commitment still has…0
  2. 2Leaving the Witness (2019)Leaving the Witness (2019) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2019Amber Scorah moved to Shanghai as a Jehovah's Witness, intending to share a faith she had inherited. Her memoir follows the friendships and work that made her imagine a life outside it. The passages about losing a ready-made community give the story a weight that a description of changing one's…0
  3. 3All who go do not return (2015)All who go do not return (2015) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2015Shulem Deen begins to question the beliefs he has lived by in a Skver Hasidic community. His account of what follows gives his children and the routines of family life as much attention as his private doubts. It is a difficult read if the question you came with is how much of a former life can be…0
  4. 4Unorthodox (2012)Unorthodox (2012) 7.6/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2012Deborah Feldman grew up in a Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn. Her memoir gives her growing love of books and her eventual departure a specific setting, including the obligations of an early marriage. Read it for what access to another language and other stories can make possible when the…0
  5. 5Unfollow (2019)Unfollow (2019)Published Jan 1, 2019Megan Phelps-Roper writes about growing up in the Westboro Baptist Church and seeing her convictions put under pressure in extended conversations with people she met on Twitter. The exchanges are worth reading for the patience they demand. The decision to leave still has consequences that no…0
  6. 6Losing my religion (2008)Losing my religion (2008) 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2008William Lobdell covered religion as a reporter after becoming a Christian himself. His work brought him into contact with accounts of abuse and the ways church leaders responded. Read him for the strain of asking questions in a professional role that become increasingly difficult to keep outside…0
  7. 7My Life in Orange (2004)My Life in Orange (2004)Published Jan 1, 2004Tim Guest remembers the Rajneesh communities his mother joined and the different rules, clothes, and ideas about family that made up his childhood. The child's view gives the memoir its force. It is a good choice if you want to read about questioning something familiar before you have words for its…0
  8. 8Surprised by Joy (1955)Surprised by Joy (1955) 6.9/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1955C. S. Lewis distinguishes the fleeting desire he calls Joy from the conclusions he eventually reaches about God. His account follows childhood reading and adult conversation back to the questions those experiences raised. Choose it for a conversion memoir in which intellectual argument and a…0
  9. 9Take this bread (2007)Take this bread (2007) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2007Sara Miles walked into an Episcopal church, took Communion, and found herself rethinking what food and faith could ask of her. What makes this memoir worth staying with is the food pantry she went on to start. It shows how a moment of conviction looks once it becomes a responsibility shared with…0
  10. 10The Long Loneliness (1952)The Long Loneliness (1952) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1952Dorothy Day traces her movement toward Catholicism alongside the political commitments and relationships that preceded it. Her account of building the Catholic Worker movement with Peter Maurin gives the change a public and practical afterlife. Read it for how an altered faith can rearrange work…0