Leadings: A Catholic's Journey Through Quakerism [Paperback]

Irene Lape (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

A moving spiritual autobiography blending personal narrative with a discussion of Quaker faith, culminating in a call to personal obedience and unity in the church.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This odd little memoir could be called "What I Like about Quakers-and, By the Way, Why I Left." Born to Marxists who divorced before she was two, raised by Catholic grandparents, catechized by Episcopalians at an aunt's parish, Lape entered the Roman Catholic Church in 1964 after her freshman year of college. A year later she lapsed into doubt and political activism, steering clear of organized religion for over a decade. Then began an attraction to Quakerism (aka the Society of Friends) that would last another decade, ending with a return to the Catholic Church for Quaker reasons. "I went back because I believed God wanted me to go back, and as a Friend I would have proved unfaithful had I failed to obey his voice." Two-thirds of Lape's book concerns her Quaker period, from initial attraction through "convincement" to eventual disappointment. Her mostly cerebral account, laced with quotations from Quaker literature, includes discussions of Quaker history and theology, customs past and present, and contemporary branches ranging from evangelical to non-theistic. For a spiritual journey book, the story is curiously impersonal. Lape writes about life-changing events as if she is describing someone she doesn't know very well. Except for her grandparents, "Dumps" and "Nini," she names none of the significant people in her life, not even her husbands and children, and she relates gut-wrenching episodes such as her son's kidnapping calmly, as from a distance. Ultimately, the reader learns a good deal about Quakers but little about Lape.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The child of atheist, leftist parents who gave her to grandparents after their divorce, Lape is amazed that she became a staunch Christian. Yet her grandparents sent her to the Episcopal church, her grandfather proved a fine parent, and relations with her father remained loving. Her mother went mad, however, which could have destroyed her childhood faith, and though she converted to Catholicism in college, she abandoned it for ideology only a year later. She grew to distrust her own judgment, which led her into a bad first marriage. All along, she studied, and upon becoming an attorney, she started attending Quaker meetings for worship. There she found a way of personal spirituality that she commends to fellow lay Catholics in particular (she rejoined the church in the '90s). She subsumes an explication of Quakerism as an orthodox Christian movement in her personal story so well that those curious about Quaker Christianity (today, she stresses, many Quakers aren't Christians) couldn't do better than to start learning from her eloquent, intelligent, and moving testimony. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Brazos Press (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587430541
• ISBN-13: 978-1587430541
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual autobiography, September 30, 2005

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leadings: A Catholic's Journey Through Quakerism (Paperback)

'The vision I offer is at heart a plea for unity.' Irene Lape makes this assertion in her introduction, before leading the reader on a circuitous but ultimately satisfying journey through her own spiritual trek. Raised in the Episcopal church, she joined the Catholic church in college, left the church and her faith behind for a time before discovering faithful influences and impulses in connection with Quakerism, which led her back to her early chosen Catholic identity.

This is not a story of one faith or system being better than another, but rather gives good insight into the kinds of discernment processes we all have been invited to go through in our own lives. We may not all have the same experiences (indeed, few of us will have the specific experiences that Lape had). Her experiences as a child in the Episcopal church remind me of what I've heard over and over again: 'I enjoyed church - the stained glass, the dark, candle-lit interior, the flowers, the music, the sixteenth-century language of the liturgy.' However, there was something not quite there about God's presence, or rather, God's presence was larger than one being in the confines of the church.

Lape's experience traces through many religious influences - in many ways, this is fairly typical of American families and communities. She recounts friends and relatives who were of different religious and philosophical persuasions; one read the works of Mary Baker Eddy regularly, another introduced her to James Joyce and T.S. Eliot. However, it was the Quakers, who didn't advance any kind of doctrine or dogma, but rather looked for the indwelling spirit in all people, that awakened her to greater possibilities within her own life experience of religion and spirituality.

Lape develops chapters of her life overlapping with the ways in which Quaker ideas see scripture, personal testimony and stories, and discernment processes. What Lape really has done in this text is to show her life-long progress in discernment. Lape is also influenced by the narrative theologian Stanley Hauerwas (and narrative theology is one of my particular prefernces in theological method). Lape finally explores what it means to her to be Catholic 'again', delineating her areas of agreement and disagreement with the Quaker sensibilities and practices in a gentle and conversational way.

This is a wonderful, personal spiritual autobiography that can give insight to the reader on his or her own journey through spiritual life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Irene Lape's singular vision, February 18, 2003

By 

James R. Yarsky (Huntington Station, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leadings: A Catholic's Journey Through Quakerism (Paperback)

I'm a sucker for a spiritual journey and this this one is unlike any I've read. Ms Lape's wildly interesting path toward Christ is complicated, powerful and thoroughly human. Her love for patient process and shared devotion makes for great reading. Ms Lape's arrival back to the Church is a powerful story of the practicality and intense mystical power of G-d's love. For me, "Leadings" offered an insightful and loving link between the two "official" religions of my life. Hats off (or wait, should I keep it on?) to Ms Lape.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extradinory, January 26, 2003

By 

Nathn Thomas (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leadings: A Catholic's Journey Through Quakerism (Paperback)

Simpley breathtaking! If you have ever waivered from your faith you will be able to relate with this book. Good job Irene, when is your next book coming out? I can hardly wait.