The Spiral Staircase
My Climb Out of Darkness
The moving story of her own search for God by the highly-acclaimed author of the bestselling A History of God, The Battle for God and Islam: A Short History.
In 1969, after seven years as a Roman Catholic nun—hoping, but ultimately failing, to find God—Armstrong left her convent. She knew almost nothing of the changed world she was entering, and she was tormented by panic attacks and inexplicable seizures. Her struggle against despair was fueled by a string of discouragements—failed spirituality, doctorate and jobs, fruitless dealings with psychiatrists—but finally, in 1976, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and given proper treatment. She then began the writing career that would become her true calling, and as she focused on the sacred texts of…
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February 22, 2005KAREN 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…