Redeemed by Heather King
One Woman's Spiritual Awakening After a Lifetime of Self-Destruction
Redeemed traces the path of one woman's journey away from her addiction-addled past and toward the Catholic faith.
Religion is a highly personal and controversial matter. It can often result in conflicts of worldwide repercussions. But mostly, religion is a journey one embarks upon in order to satisfy, or more appropriately quench, their spiritual thirst.
For Heather King, author of the book, Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity and the Peace That Passes All Understanding, her journey toward Catholicism comes only after many years of living in opposition of everything the Catholic Church represents.
King's Background
King lived a life wrought with turbulence: she was an alcoholic who admitting to living in a world centered around promiscuity. She lived in excess in all extremes, including her years of alcoholism, undergoing multiple abortions and divorce from her husband of over a decade. Eventually when she became sober, she found that she needed more out of her life. This is how she ended up on the path to her own personal redemption.
King's Approach To Catholicism
Redeemed speaks candidly of one woman’s quest for the salvation she was only able to achieve through converting to Catholicism. Though the book is interspersed with scripture, it is not preachy and does not attempt to convince the reader to follow her steps. King speaks honestly of her struggles and her past, which was anything but ideally Catholic. She approaches all the issues people have in regards to the Catholic Church: the imposition of guilt, the sexual discrimination, the pedophilia scandals, the self-inflicted martyrdom and the sins of daily life. However, on the same token, King also addresses the universally positive teachings of the Church such as compassion, forgiveness and love for our fellow human beings.
King's Message Has Universal Appeal
While one can’t help but feel King’s words are resounding of any other convert who has “found God” or experienced a religious epiphany after a life of struggle, she has a way of approaching the topic in a humorous manner that almost makes the reader overlook the underlying religious implications.
Her honesty makes her story genuinely believable and the reader can easily relate to many facets of her life. True, we have not all have experienced the addiction of alcoholism or the emotional trauma of having had several aborted pregnancies, but we can relate to loosing someone we love, learning how to live among those we don’t particularly like, dealing with disease and finding our true calling in the world.
You don’t need to be a Catholic to enjoy the theme of King’s book. The message of redemption is universal: We all want to be saved. By reading the story about one woman who was able to overcome her past and be resurrected anew, we can achieve a level of hope that we rarely feel upon the conclusion of reading a book.
Book Stats:
Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity and the Peace That Passes All Understanding by Heather King.
Hardcopy, 256 pages.
Viking, 2008.
ISBN 0670018635
