Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life
by: Kathleen Norris
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Product Description:
Kathleen Norriss masterpiece: a personal and moving memoir that resurrects the ancient term acedia, or soul-weariness, and brilliantly explores its relevancy to the modern individual and culture.
Kathleen Norris had written several much loved books, yet she couldnt drag herself out of bed in the morning, couldnt summon the energy for daily tasks. Even as she struggled, Norris recognized her familiar battle with acedia. She had discovered the word in an early Church text when she was in her thirties. Having endured times of deep soul-weariness since she was a teenager, she immediately recognized that this passage described her affliction: sinking into a state of being unable to care. Fascinated by this noonday demon, so familiar to those in the early and medieval Church, Norris read intensively and knew she must restore this forgotten but utterly relevant and important concept to the modern worlds vernacular.
Like Norriss bestselling The Cloister Walk, Acedia & me is part memoir and part meditation. As in her bestselling Amazing Grace, here Norris explicates and demystifies a spiritual concept, exploring acedia through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition. Unlike her earlier books, this one features a poignant narrative throughout of Norriss and her husbands bouts with acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Moreover, her analysis of acedia reveals its burden not just on individuals but on whole societies and that the restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair that we struggle with today are the ancient demon of acedia in modern dress.
An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norriss own experience, Acedia & me is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important.
Kathleen Norriss masterpiece: a personal and moving memoir that resurrects the ancient term acedia, or soul-weariness, and brilliantly explores its relevancy to the modern individual and culture.
Kathleen Norris had written several much loved books, yet she couldnt drag herself out of bed in the morning, couldnt summon the energy for daily tasks. Even as she struggled, Norris recognized her familiar battle with acedia. She had discovered the word in an early Church text when she was in her thirties. Having endured times of deep soul-weariness since she was a teenager, she immediately recognized that this passage described her affliction: sinking into a state of being unable to care. Fascinated by this noonday demon, so familiar to those in the early and medieval Church, Norris read intensively and knew she must restore this forgotten but utterly relevant and important concept to the modern worlds vernacular.
Like Norriss bestselling The Cloister Walk, Acedia & me is part memoir and part meditation. As in her bestselling Amazing Grace, here Norris explicates and demystifies a spiritual concept, exploring acedia through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition. Unlike her earlier books, this one features a poignant narrative throughout of Norriss and her husbands bouts with acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Moreover, her analysis of acedia reveals its burden not just on individuals but on whole societies and that the restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair that we struggle with today are the ancient demon of acedia in modern dress.
An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norriss own experience, Acedia & me is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important.
Features:
- ISBN13: 9781594489969
- Condition: New
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Acedia -- Depression?
Although the author differentiates between depression and spiritual "acedia," I was unable to finish reading this book.It was depressing, at least to me.
Rating: - Acedia and Me
This book is dense, and difficult to get into, but well worth the effort it takes. Kathleen Norris' exposition on acedia was an eye-opener for me. I had never heard of acedia before reading this book, so it contained a wealth of new information for me. Ms. Norris uses her own experience with acedia, beginning in her teenage years, as well as drawing material from the ancient desert Abbas and Ammas and other sources through the ages. Even after reading the book, I find it difficult to define acedia. ... Read More
Rating: - Reading This Will Give You Acedia
My list of complaints: Too much, way, way, way, way too much research. If I didn't know anything about the subject than maybe I would benefit from the imposed education and all the references and all the references and all the references. But as for me ECCCH! enough already!
The voice. I've never read anything else by the author but in this book her voice will put you to sleep. It feels like she's writing from the tomb, come on, it can't be that bad, she's writing a book isn't she? But there's ... Read More
Rating: - Naming the Enemy, Patience with Self
In Acedia and Me, Kathleen Norris provides us with a helpful exposition of the monastic idea of torpor or spiritual and mental sloth, what the ancients called acedia.Explaining how this term, uncommon in our day, has developed historically and theologically, is a key theme of the book.Norris surveys a vast range of monastic, contemplative, theological, and other literary treatments of this idea, helping us grasp how the recognition of this vice might serve us today in our own spiritual journeys. ... Read More
Rating:
- Acedia and Me
Extremely well written - weaves a personal narrative with History and a treatise on a specific mood disorder. Interesting, enjoyable and constructive information.
- Acedia -- Depression?Although the author differentiates between depression and spiritual "acedia," I was unable to finish reading this book.It was depressing, at least to me.
Rating:
- Acedia and MeThis book is dense, and difficult to get into, but well worth the effort it takes. Kathleen Norris' exposition on acedia was an eye-opener for me. I had never heard of acedia before reading this book, so it contained a wealth of new information for me. Ms. Norris uses her own experience with acedia, beginning in her teenage years, as well as drawing material from the ancient desert Abbas and Ammas and other sources through the ages. Even after reading the book, I find it difficult to define acedia. ... Read More
Rating:
- Reading This Will Give You AcediaMy list of complaints: Too much, way, way, way, way too much research. If I didn't know anything about the subject than maybe I would benefit from the imposed education and all the references and all the references and all the references. But as for me ECCCH! enough already!
The voice. I've never read anything else by the author but in this book her voice will put you to sleep. It feels like she's writing from the tomb, come on, it can't be that bad, she's writing a book isn't she? But there's ... Read More
Rating:
- Naming the Enemy, Patience with SelfIn Acedia and Me, Kathleen Norris provides us with a helpful exposition of the monastic idea of torpor or spiritual and mental sloth, what the ancients called acedia.Explaining how this term, uncommon in our day, has developed historically and theologically, is a key theme of the book.Norris surveys a vast range of monastic, contemplative, theological, and other literary treatments of this idea, helping us grasp how the recognition of this vice might serve us today in our own spiritual journeys. ... Read More
Rating:
- Acedia and MeExtremely well written - weaves a personal narrative with History and a treatise on a specific mood disorder. Interesting, enjoyable and constructive information.
