At midlife, a spiritually hungry author of self-help books leaves her professional life to enroll in divinity school. Return from Exile is the engaging, often profound story of Carol Matzkin Orsborn's first year at Vanderbilt Divinity School, the year that transformed her life. In this spiritual "pressure cooker", we share the author's friendships with similarly searching students, her encounters with challenging and supportive professors, and her first serious engagement with Jewish and Christian literatures. In a largely Chrsitian environment, Orsborn confronts her unconsciously held prejudices and loyalties and discovers the hidden riches within her own tradition. Eventually she finds her way back to the heart and soul of Judaism, but it is a very different Judaism from the one she left behind.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Orsborn, an author of popular books in applied spirituality (How Would Confucius Ask for a Raise?), decided at midlife to enroll in an academically demanding graduate school of theology. A Jew, she chose to attend a program in the heart of the Southern Bible belt. Her account of her first year in graduate school, written in the same breezy popular style of her previous books, will be of interest to the same popular audience addressed in those efforts. It's not so much that Orsborn makes readers care about her first year in graduate school as that she introduces an interesting community of seekers all struggling in one way or another to find their way home without succumbing to destructive personal and social forces of exclusion, fear, racism and sexism. Orsborn is at her best when she exposes both the anti- Semitism at the heart of Christian tradition and the surprising depth of Jewish self-hatred in her own experience, including a suburban Chicago upbringing and a long sojourn in San Francisco. The seekers encountered in Orsborn's lively account form a community in the process of discovering that they do not all have to be finding their way to the same home, a particular struggle for her Evangelical and Fundamentalist classmates. As the subtitle suggests, the story is also a personal account of Orsborn's return to Judaism by way of her encounter not only with her colleagues at Vanderbilt (both students and prominent faculty members) but also with the work of Abraham Joshua Heschel. Both the account and the popular introduction to Heschel will be of value to seekers on the way to and from a wide range of spiritual homes.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Levy, a member of the first class of women to study for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary and the first female Conservative rabbi to lead a congregation on the West Coast, draws on her professional experience as well as her personal historyAher father was murdered when she was 15Ain this guide to dealing with the challenges life presents. Comfort, she claims, can be found in community, silence and solitude, prayer, and listening as well as revealing oneself to others, tears, touch, learning, and memory. Along with the original prayers she includes at the end of each chapter, her extensive use of parablesAexamples of people she has known who have dealt with trials in their livesAmakes this a wise and practical guide for readers of any religious persuasion. Highly recommended for spiritual self-help collections. Orsborn, author of The Art of Resilience: 100 Paths to Wisdom and Strength in an Uncertain World (Three Rivers, 1997), moved from San Francisco to Nashville when her husband got a "dream job" in the country music business. She enrolled at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, interested in learning more of the parables of Christianity in order to further inform her writing. During the course of her studies, however, she found herself drawn more and more to the Jewish heritage she had abandoned years before when she married her Gentile husband. This chronicle of the first year of her studies at Vanderbilt details her personal journey back to the faith of her forebears with grace, sensitivity, and humor. Recommended for general as well as theological collections.AMarcia G. Welsh, Guilford Free Lib., CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, moving story of return to faith,
By A Customer
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This review is from: Return from Exile: One Woman's Journey Back to Judaism (Hardcover)
Carol Orsborn movingly describes her return to the faith of her childhood, Judaism. No sentimental hash here; this spiritual renewal came through study and hard work while Orsborn was a student at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She paints a very realistic picture of the current state of education in university-related divinity schools, and the composite characters she uses are sometimes howlingly funny (and familiar). This is not just a book for Jews; anyone hoping to make peace with the faith of his or her early years will find in this book a helpful, hopeful story. I have loaned it to several members of my church who are struggling with Christianity. What is important for me and the readers I know is not so much the faith to which Orsborn returns, but the journey she makes. That journey can be universal.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Return from Exile,
By Jason Clark (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Return from Exile: One Woman's Journey Back to Judaism (Hardcover)
I am a person from a strong fundamentalist Christian background I am reexamining my spiritual journey and studying Judaism. I have to say that I loved the book! It helped me personally in her openess and transparency of her feelings of anger, confusion and hope. Good Job!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From A Fellow Traveler,
This review is from: Return from Exile: One Woman's Journey Back to Judaism (Hardcover)
As I read the previous reviews, I was struck by the anger expressed by some, and the joy filled paragraphs of others. Carol Orsborn has obviously hit a few nerves here, which is exactly what a wonderful writer,(and I truly believe she is), should do. This journey, one I daresay few would be brave enough to begin, leads us down (and up) a glorious path, allowing the reader to feel the emotional and spiritual road beneath the writer's feet as if we are there alongside her. The name of your chosen faith is not the issue here. Take this walk with her and learn.
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