Introduction
Reading a spiritual memoir is a great way to learn about a religion, whether you're completely new to it or you're looking to gain a deeper understanding of a practice you already know something about. Spiritual memoirs offer insight into a religion from the perspective of a person experiencing it for him or herself, and are usually readable and engaging.
Searching With Subject Headings
Subject headings are terms that librarians assign to books, articles and other information to make it easy to search by topic. You can use subject headings in a database or catalog to find everything on your topic. The trick is finding out what the most appropriate subject headings are. Here are some subject headings that you can use to find various kinds of spiritual memoir:
- Spiritual biography
- Spiritual life--Judaism
- Muslim converts--Biography
- Christian biography
- Clergy--United States--Biography
Note that these subject headings bring up many things that are not spiritual memoir. To focus your search results, use the subject headings in an Advanced Search along with other keywords that you choose. For example, search any of these subject headings in one field as "Subject" with the word "memoir" in another field as "Keyword."
If Augsburg University doesn't own the book you want, place an Interlibrary Loan request. It may take up to a week for your book to arrive, but this option expands your choices considerably.
Examples Of Spiritual Memoir at Augsburg University or Luther Seminary
The Cloister Walk by
"Why would a married woman with a thoroughly Protestant background and often more doubt than faith be drawn to the ancient practice of monasticism, to a community of celibate men whose days are centered around a rigid schedule of prayer, work, and scripture? This is the question that Kathleen Norris herself asks as, somewhat to her own surprise, she found herself on two extended residencies at a Benedictine monastery. Yet upon leaving the monastery, she began to feel herself transformed, and the daily events of her life on the Great Plains - from her morning walk to her going to sleep at night - gradually took on new meaning." "She found that in the monastery, time slowed down, offering a new perspective on community, family, and even small-town life. By coming to understand the Benedictine practice of celibacy, she felt her own marriage enriched; through the communal reading aloud of the psalms every day, her notion of the ancient oral tradition of poetry came to life; and even the mundane task of laundry took on new meaning through the lens of Benedictine ritual." "Writing with lyrical grace, Kathleen Norris here takes us through a liturgical year, as she experienced it both within the monastery and outside it. She shows us, from the rare perspective of someone who is both insider and outsider, how immersion in the cloistered world - its liturgy, its rituals, its sense of community - can impart meaning to everyday events and deepen our secular lives. Through her masterly prose and rare insight, the monastery, often considered archaic or otherworldly, becomes immediate, accessible, and relevant to us, no matter what our faith may be."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 9781573220286Publication Date: 1996-04-02
Long Loneliness by
This inspiring and fascinating memoir, subtitled, "The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist," The Long Loneliness is the late Dorothy Day's compelling autobiographical testament to her life of social activism and her spiritual pilgrimage. A founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and longtime associate of Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day was eulogized in the New York Times as, "a nonviolent social radical of luminous personality." The Long Loneliness recounts her remarkable journey from the Greenwich Village political and literary scene of the 1920s through her conversion to Catholicism and her lifelong struggle to help bring about "the kind of society where it is easier to be good."
ISBN: 0060617519Publication Date: 2009-09-01
The Road to the Sundance by
A Native American spiritual elder and healer describes the ritual of the sundance, the most sacred event of the Shoshoni and Lakota people, recounts the many dances he has witnessed, and explains many other Lakota customs.
Call Number: E90.T88 A3 1996ISBN: 9780786862153Publication Date: 1996-11-01
Black Elk Speaks by Call Number: E90.B82 A3 1961ISBN: 1438425406Publication Date: 2008-10-16The famous story of the Lakota healer and visionary, Nicholas Black Elk.
Gandhi - An Autobiography by
Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century. In a new foreword, noted peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok urges us to adopt Gandhi's "attitude of experimenting, of tesing what will and will not bear close scrutiny, what can and cannot be adapted to new circumstances,"in order to bring about change in our own lives and communities. All royalties earned on this book are paid to the Navajivan Trust, founded by Gandhi, for use in carrying on his work.
Call Number: DS481.G3 A356ISBN: 0807059099Publication Date: 1993-11-01
Databases
You can find information about spiritual memoirs in both the ATLA Religion Database and Academic Search Premier. A search for "spiritual memoir" will bring up book titles that you can check to see if we own or request through Interlibrary Loan.
- ATLA Religion Database This link opens in a new window
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window