Lying Awake, Jared Salzman
Jun 7, 2021 01:00 PM
- 1. "I made a commitment to live by faith, not reason," Sister John writes [p. 119]. In making her decision about surgery, does she rely entirely on faith, or does reason play a role as well?
- 2. Sister John wonders whether Dostoevsky would have been treated for his epilepsy if he had had the option. In view of his description of his rapture [p. 120], how would you answer this question? Can artistic inspiration be related to mental imbalances, either physical or psychological? For example, how did the mental instability of artists and writers such as Van Gogh, Robert Lowell, and Sylvia Plath influence their work?
- St. Teresa, who suffered epileptic seizures, agonized over how to tell the difference between genuine spiritual experiences and false ones and feared for her own sanity. Is her warning against "seeking illness as a means of cultivating holiness" [p. 121] still relevant today? Why is Sister John's struggle harder in some ways than the difficulties faced by St. Teresa and other Christian mystics of the past?
- Why does the priest say "[W]e're all better off having doubts about the state of our souls than presuming ourselves to be holy [p. 125]? How does this compare to the teachings of most religion and most people's beliefs? To what extent do our behavior and the decisions we make entail making "presumptions" about ourselves and our place in the world?
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