Unveiled : the hidden lives of Nuns / Cheryl L. Reed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reed, Cheryl L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Monasticism and religious orders for women--United States.

Monasticism and religious orders for women.

Monastic and religious life of women--United States.

Monastic and religious life of women.

Nuns--United States.

Nuns.

United States.

Physical Description:

xviii, 331 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Berkley Books, 2004.

Summary:

When reporter Cheryl L. Reed set out to examine the lives of nuns, she was fulfilling a personal quest, discovering for herself what was behind the mysterious image instilled by her Protestant upbringing and reinforced by Hollywood cliches, misguided speculation, and her Catholic friends' childhood stories of unyielding figures in black. So began a journalistic pursuit of an enigmatic subculture, during which Reed interviewed more than three hundred nuns of diverse beliefs and lifestyles -- from cloistered and isolated to untraditional and activist -- from more than fifty different orders across the country. Is the sisterhood still a viable option for women in today's society? Why had so many of these women entered the strict, habited orders? How could they possibly exert their own identity in a world of such conformity? And why were they so willing to give up material pleasures, money, the company of men, and sex? The answers not only changed Reed's perspective on nuns: they changed Reed's perspective on herself and on her life.

She lived and prayed with them, observed their daily lives, and participated in silent worship. She witnessed their vow ceremonies, mourned with them, celebrated and drank with them. They welcomed questions no one had ever dared ask before. Reed listened to their personal stories and candid musings about love and sex, life and death, faith and joy, loss and regret. In the end, the nuns Reed had approached with suspicion and curiosity ended up teaching her more about motherhood, relationships, and feminism than she ever gleaned from the outside world. In Unveiled, Reed has succeeded in opening up the doors to a once-closed world -- one often misrepresented and almost always misunderstood -- to present nuns not as stoic icons of secrecy and ritual but simply as women who have chosen an independent path, and who now offer themselves as guides to their fascinating, surprising, and enlightening interior lives.

Contents:

Prologue: Life Before the Nuns xiii

Part 1 Community

1. Beyond Stereotype 3

2. Sisters in the 'Hood 26

Part 2 Obedience

3. Politics of the Habit 52

4. Sisters with Attitude 74

5. The Elastic Cloister 104

Part 3 Chastity

6. The sensual sisters 132

7. A Divine Intimacy 157

Part 4 Poverty

8. The Last of the Monjitas 183

9. Teaching on the Rez 211

10. Among the Down and out in L.A. 235

Part 5 Spirituality

11. Spiritual Protests 259

12. The Mystic Mother Superior 279

13. Finding the Future, seeing the Past 298

Epilogue: Life After the Nuns 323.

ISBN:

0425195112

OCLC:

53076215