Habits of Change: An Oral History of American Nuns

As an atheist raised as a non-denominational Christian, I truly did not understand why someone would become a nun, or what it meant to be a nun. This book helped me to understand a little bit about why some women choose this path and where it leads.

I really enjoyed when the women talked about how/why they decided to join an order, whether or not they think that vowed religious life will continue to exist beyond the current professed generations, and dealing with the sexism within the Catholic Church. These topics really got to the heart of my questions, and the variety of opinions and experiences gave me much to contemplate. One of my favorite lines went something like this: the Catholic Church measures time in centuries, and humans measure time in decades, so change that is much too fast for the Church is usually much too slow for the people. It's an interesting thought, and it certainly explains a lot.

One of the questions that popped into my head as I was reading this book was, “Gee, if nuns are no longer wearing the habit, no longer living in convents, no longer cut off from the world except for teaching, then what is the point of being a nun? Why not have a regular life as very devout laywomen?” Some of the interviews touched on this, as did the epilogue, but I do get the sense that it's a question that they are asking themselves, and that remains unanswered.