About the Book
Called to Question is Sr. Joan Chittister's most personal and intense writing to date. Centered around a series of conversations with spiritual writers featured in her private journal, Sr. Joan looks at the common questions or dimensions of life as we know them in our daily lives-not answers as we've been given them-in an attempt to unravel their many meanings, to give them flesh, to honor their spiritual import now and here, in our time and in our own lives. By sharing the questions, doubts, and convictions in her own heart, Chittister explores the heart of faith itself and nurtures a spirituality that pushes readers beyond superficial questioning and unexamined faith.
The paperback edition includes a new Prologue about the power of questions in today's society. Following a moving prologue on the nature of faith, Called to Question is broken into six parts that explore key themes- the inward life, immersion in life, resistance, feminist spirituality, ecology, dailiness. Within each theme is a wide array of topics that embody Sr. Joan's life's work as a sociologist, theologian, Benedictine nun, rights activist, and spiritual guide to countless people throughout the world. Alive with the raw energy of a journal and polished with the skill of a master storyteller, each chapter is an engaging dialogue between Sr. Joan and many different wisdom sources about such topics as God's existence and call, experience, struggle, justice, the role of women and men in society and church, living through doubt, and celebrating life. Called to Question is a rare and powerful invitation to look into the center of our own souls, name our questions about God and life, admit the worst, and pursue the best-even when we are unsure where that pursuit will take us.
Table of Contents:
Part 1 Prologue: The Journey From Religion to Spirituality
Chapter 2 Religion: A Finger Pointing at the Moon
Chapter 3 Spirituality: Beyond the Boundaries of Religion
Part 4 The Inward Life: A Discovery of the Obvious
Chapter 5 The God Within: Whom Shall I Say Sent Me?
Chapter 6 The Presence of God: The Truth That Sets Us Free
Chapter 7 Prayer: Every Time I Do Get Time
Chapter 8 The Call of God: An Echo in the Heart
Chapter 9 Insight: The Alchemy of Experience
Chapter 10 Solitude: The Balm of the Soul
Chapter 11 The Self: The Ground of our Becoming
Chapter 12 Commitment: The Place of Change in the Spiritual Life
Chapter 13 Balance: Going Through Life Whole and Holy
Chapter 14 Darkness: A Way to Light
Part 15 Immersion in Life: The Other Side of Inwardness
Chapter 16 Relationships: To Know and Be Known
Chapter 17 Friendship: A Gift of Independence
Chapter 18 Listening: The Beginning of Wisdom
Part 19 Resistance: The Gospel Imperative
Chapter 20 Justice: Passion for the Reign of God
Chapter 21 Power in the Powerless: The Courage to Refuse Evil
Part 22 Feminist Spirituality: The Coming of a New World
Chapter 23 Society and Women: The Loss of the Soul
Chapter 24 Men and Women: The Discovery of the Adult
Chapter 25 The Church and Women: Speaking in the Name of God
Part 26 Ecology: The Other Side of the Spiritual Life
Chapter 27 Nature: The Voice of God Around Us
Chapter 28 Creation: The Process That Never Ends
Part 29 Dailiness: The Gifts of the Mundane
Chapter 30 Struggle: The Search for God in Darkness
Chapter 31 Joy: The God who Loves Laughter
Chapter 32 Sanctity: The Task of Growing into God
Part 33 Epilogue
About the Author :
Joan Chittister is a Benedictine sister, best-selling author, and a well-known national and international lecturer. In 2007 she was awarded the Outstanding Leadership Award from The Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
Review :
Some leading figures (like the Pope) never say, 'I don't know;' others (like the Dalai Lama) say it surprisingly often. Joan Chittister admirably demonstrates the sparkling wisdom which springs from befriending our uncertainty. Page after page, her spirited questioning makes us feel joyfully alive.
In Called to Question, Joan Chittister calls us to enter deeply into ourselves as she enters into herself in this memoir that bears the compelling marks of a spiritual classic of our time. Already one of the true voices of the post-Vatican II age, she speaks to us as Woman, as Church, as Spiritual Guide but, most of all, following the mystical poet Blake, in a voice that cleanses the doors of perception so that we may see the universe as it is, infinite. Joan understands that religion is not the work of the will but of the imagination and that the Church is the sacrament of the world, just as it is. Read this to know Joan Chittister better, to know yourself more truly, and to grasp the meaning of sacramental faith more deeply.
This candid memoir takes us immediately back to the challenging spirit of the gospels. Sister Joan reminds us that we have a religious duty to question any authority, however august, and to overturn the idols of orthodoxy. This wise, charitable, and humane book will give hope to anybody who has felt diminished by institutionalized religion.
Chittister expertly and succinctly discusses the differences between religion, which she sees as an institution, and spirituality, which transcends dogma and creed, she says, and dwells in the heart. She reflects upon love and friendship, solitude and contemplation, power and evil, ecology and nature, and ultimately promotes a feminist spirituality to save the world from looming mass destruction.
The book maps Chittister's 'conscious, perilous journey from religion to spirituality.'
For Sister Joan Chittister, defiance is a form of obedience. And silence in the face of injustice is a sin.
Inspiring and edifying spiritual memoir. Consider this work as an example of the growth and transformation that can come from reading and savoring the spiritual words of others.
The powerhouse sister may come packaged like a powder puff-a powder-blue suit matching her powder-blue eyes. But her out spoken ways challenge any tired stereotypes of women religious, as catholic sisters and nuns are known.
This spiritual memoir is not only the story of how Chittister discovered that she was 'called to question,' but a prompting for all of us to discover that vocation within ourselves as well.
Sister Joan's book is an inner journey of the soul.
