Dance of a Fallen Monk: The Twists and Turns of a Spiritual Life
Like Augustine, Fowler narrates his life as an extended adolescence, and, like Augustine, he is an unsparing and often entertaining storyteller. The "dance" he describes will elicit glimmers of recognition in spiritual seekers struggling through a material world whose spiritual dimensions often appear obscure. Fowler's description of his book as being about everybody's dance, though perhaps a bit grandiose, also echoes Augustine; a particular spiritual journey is a window on a universally human experience. While this dance stands in the decidedly orthodox stream of confessional literature, it also stands in a growing body of testimony from "recovering Catholics." That will be a jarring contradiction to some, but it may also be a source of insight to others.Steve Schroeder