And Then There Were Nuns

And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures in a Cloistered Life
© 2013 Jane Christmas
292 pages

When Jane Christmas' boyfriend proposed to her, she gave him the most obvious reply: she said she wanted to join a nunnery.  It wasn't that he had driven her to the cloister; she had been tempted by it for most of her life, but it wasn't until her beau was down on bended knee that she realized it was now or never. And so she spent the better part of a year living in monastic communities, with nuns and monks alike, in Canada and in Britain, while her extraordinarily long-suffering fiance kept in contact by letter. And Then Were Nuns is a slightly humorous account of an endeavor seriously undertaken: to see if the author truly felt called to be a nun. The result for readers is a look into a world normally out of mind, and an exploration of the value of a monastic life to the religiously-inclined.

Religious orders are the Anglican church's best-kept secret, Christmas writes, and that's probably the case, for whoever associates nuns with the Church of England? Nuns are black-habited sisters stalking the halls of private schools or hospitals, thumping children with rulers or humorlessly flipping protesting hospital patients on their backsides to administer shots in their hinterlands. But the Anglican church does have religious orders, male and female, throughout the world, and Christmas begins by spending four weeks at a convent in Toronto, where she's treated as if she's on retreat. The initial bit of self-examination unlocks some inner demons, and before making a decision whether to marry her finance or Jesus, she decided a more intensive sojourn is in order, a multi-month stay at a convent in Britain. As she travels there, she stays with nuns and monks at two religious communities on the Isle of Wight, flirting with the Catholic church before an indignant mother informs her that no she bloody well can not join the Romans and become a nun with three marriages to her name. Her experiences there affirm her association with the Church of England, however theologically indecisive and socially regressive it might be. Eventually Jane realizes this time spent living among religious orders wasn't meant so much to help her make a decision about becoming a nun as to face down a harrowing sexual episode years before.

Christmas has a reputation as a humorist, and Then There Were Nuns combines serious introspection and discussion about the spiritual and material value of the nuns' work with wry reflections. Awed and nervous by the exploration she's undertaken, Christmas sometimes escapes the intensity with jokes to herself. This isn't a laughing trip through the world of intentional religious communities, however; she is a woman on a mission. Eventually the mission bears fruit, if not exactly in the way she would have predicted; always a seeker of the simple, quiet life, Christmas is drawn to the convent for its freedom from outside distraction,  constant exhortations to spiritual mindfulness, and above all -- meaningful work.  The monotony of everyday experience, however, and the inviting presence of her children and would-be spouse outside, diminish the allure. She finds her path, however, and for the religiously-inclined or spiritually-interested reader, And Then There Were Nuns will prove informative and engaging; it is a humanizing look at people who seem to have an otherworldly existence.

The New Faithful

The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy
© 2002 Colleen Caroll
320 pages

 Every action produces its reaction, and to Colleen Carroll decades of religious liberalism have born their fruit in the form of young people flocking back to conservative religious traditions, complete with smells and bells. One of the new faithful herself,  Caroll’s own views mingle with those of the Generation Xers she interviews:.  Raised in broken families, they are resacralizing marriage; burned out by one night stands and shallow relationships, they are embracing chastity;  frustrated by Pontius Pilate’s question, ‘what is truth’, they are sneering at relativism and declaring: the truth is whatever the Bible says.  The Youth Faithful mixes anecdotes and statistics, and despite being part of her subject matter, Carroll tries valiantly to be objective: some conducted interviews are with theologians and intellectuals critical of this trend ,and see it  merely as a reflection of the age-old defiance of the reigning generation by the young.

But what if that's not the only motive? Even considering that the now-historic trend commented on here (this book is nearly twelve years old) may be being reversed (considering the surge  of people reporting as Nonreligious),what if these young people have motives which can open our eyes to the fact that society-as-usual isn't providing something they want or need? No one here offers a real reason for  re-adopting old dogmas, beyond deferring to St. Augustine or C.S. Lewis, but the prevailing idea that all of reality is subjective is no doubt frustrating. Even if you believe it, who wants to? It rails against every instinct: something must be true.  Part of this conservative morality seems linked to the resurgence of the religious right in general in the 1980s, rather than being connected to a return to Orthodoxy.  The historic appeal of orthodoxy is touched on --- there's a sense of security in associating with long-established traditions --   as is the sense of order and peace that comes from daily rituals.  More importantly are the practical reasons for the reversal: Generation X grew up after a series of profound, society-changing movements had started to take effect. They grew up in an era of skyrocketing divorces and sexual license. They were the children whose homes fell apart, whose adolescent peers' lives were ruined by the rise of STDs and early pregnancy.  They are the generation who first experienced these effects, and they are rallying against the cause of them - "liberalism", used generically . More than anything, the people interviewed in this book are yearning for stability -- stability in beliefs, in practice. They want a faith that can be counted on to guide them through the hard times. It's worth pointing out, though Carroll doesn't, that her 'young adults' are not so young: while there are college students here, many more are thirty-somethings with young families, and thus a heightened appreciation for morality and security are not too surprising.  It's a lot easier to want to set the world on fire with change when you don't have children of your own who can be burned.

The Young Faithful is a thought-provoking book, if grating by the end as a result of the casual use of 'liberal' as an attack word, which damages the general sense of professionalism conveyed by Carroll's writing.  It is out of place in a more serious work like this.  Considering that current religious growth is in fact in 'conservative' branches of Christianity like Catholicism, the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Pentecostals, and the like, as opposed to the more liberal mainline denominations,  The Youth Faithful remains of interest despite its increasing datedness, if not wholly appealing.


Related:
Crunchy Cons, Rob Dreher. Dreher is a Gen-Xer who left the Baptists for Eastern Orthodoxy.

Why Choose the Episcopal Church

Why Choose the Episcopal Church?
© 1976, 1984, John M. Krumm
184 pages

Though I am not religious, lately I have been attending services at the local Episcopal church, delighting in both the music and the company I find there (for I am familiar with more than a few of the parishioners). Last week the rector kindly lent me this book to aide in my research, for I know little about the Episcopal church or its Anglican origin, beyond the Church of England's role in English history. John M. Krumm was ordained as a Bishop in the Episcopal church, and wrote this to explain what drew him to it in the first place, and what has kept him loyal to it all these years even though it and he have differences of opinion in some areas.

The opening chapters is biographical, but Krumm devotes the bulk of the work to explaining various aspects of the Episcopalian church and the Anglican Communion in general. For those utterly unfamiliar, Henry VIII separated the Christian church in England from the rule of Rome in 1533, though his Church of England remained Catholic in everything but ultimate leadership -- placing himself, rather than Italian prince living in Rome, at the head. Later monarchs instituted reforms and counter-reforms that made the Anglican church a fascinating mixture of Catholicism and new Protestant thinking. At the start of the American Revolution, when Anglican leaders in the colonies were ordered to swear fealty to the king, they declined -- establishing the Episcopal (or bishop-led) Church of America.

The Anglican-Episcopal church's mixed heritage shows in Why Choose the Episcopal Church, for it seems to be a church which has maintained all the glorious pomp and ritual of Rome, but restrained its theology to the essentials of belief in the Trinity, the view of God as love, and the importance of baptism and Communion. It seems to me to be the most attractive mainline Christian organization in existence, upholding reason as a pillar and stressing democracy in leadership. At the same time, it maintains historic traditions (worship and dress) which are of interest to a history student like myself.  Krumm also devotes chapters to the attractions of liturgical worship,  as well as the Episcopal stress on ecumenism and social justice. Though Krumm's style is generally pleasing,  he switched back and forth between discussing Anglicanism in general and the Episcopal church specifically so often and so seamlessly that I'm still unsure as to where some distinctions lie between the two: is the Anglican church as democratic as the Episcopal church? This I don't know, but given that the American branch of Anglicanism was formed during the American Revolution, and that some of the founding fathers were members of it, it seems that the Episcopal church probably has more democratic influences than the English church.

I would say this is less a sweeping introduction to Anglicanism and more of a testimonial which may remind Episcopalians of their faith's merits or make it all the more attractive to someone considering the church. Krumm earns high marks for me in expressing his grievances with the church, none of which are trivial.  This gives the text a bit more objectivity than I had expected.