Helen Rose Ebaugh began researching this book while a Catholic nun, and ended it as an "ex-nun" and married woman. Don't let that fool you. This fascinating book is not an attack on organized religion, or a defense of it. It is instead an exploration of social "roles" each one of us inhabits, and the curious and usually painful process of leaving one or more of those roles behind. Her contention is that no matter what role we are leaving (anything from a marriage--'husband' or 'wife' being the role left--to leaving a religious group to [even!] sex-change via surgery) there are commonalities in the process that will tell us much about both ourselves and our former and future roles. As an evangelical Christian who is part of an intentional community, I read this book initially to try and understand why former members of our community (Jesus People USA) sometimes became so angry with us, and interpreted their time with us so negatively. Ebaugh's book enlightened me somewhat on that score. But for anyone trying to understand "conversion" TO a role, this book is an interesting corellary. Also, see David Bromley's "The Politics of Religious Apostasy."

Helen Rose Ebaugh began researching this book while a Catholic nun, and ended it as an "ex-nun" and married woman. Don't let that fool you. This fascinating book is not an attack on organized religion, or a defense of it. It is instead an exploration of social "roles" each one of us inhabits, and the curious and usually painful process of leaving one or more of those roles behind. Her contention is that no matter what role we are leaving (anything from a marriage--'husband' or 'wife' being the role left--to leaving a religious group to [even!] sex-change via surgery) there are commonalities in the process that will tell us much about both ourselves and our former and future roles. As an evangelical Christian who is part of an intentional community, I read this book initially to try and understand why former members of our community (Jesus People USA) sometimes became so angry with us, and interpreted their time with us so negatively. Ebaugh's book enlightened me somewhat on that score. But for anyone trying to understand "conversion" TO a role, this book is an interesting corellary. Also, see David Bromley's "The Politics of Religious Apostasy."

This book is an excellent examination of the decline of catholic religious order from a sociological perspective. I found it very insightful to those working in the creation or maintenance of religious communities.