Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir - Softcover

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.

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. (Brother David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B., senior member of Mount Savior Monastery, active participant in and author of several works on Buddhist-Christian dialogue)

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. (Eugene Kennedy, Ph.D., award-winning author, syndicated columnist, and professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University)

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. (Karen Armstrong, bestselling author of A History of God)

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. (Booklist)

The book maps Chittister's 'conscious, perilous journey from religion to spirituality.' (Shirley Ragsdale)

For Sister Joan Chittister, defiance is a form of obedience. And silence in the face of injustice is a sin. (USA Today)

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. (Spirituality and Health)

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. (Cathy Grossman Norwich Bulletin)

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. (Heidi Schlumpf U.S. Catholic)

Sister Joan's book is an inner journey of the soul. (Owen Phelps Messenger)