Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life

When Norris read about "acedia"---or deep indifference---in a 4th-century monastic text, she had at last found a name for her own chronic soul-weariness. In this candid memoir, she explores acedia through her marriage, life as a writer, spiritual practice, and the illness of her husband. A moving meditation on a forgotten, but relevant concept.

Norris explicates and demystifies a spiritual concept, exploring acedia through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition. Unlike her earlier books, this one features a poignant narrative throughout of Norris’s and her husband’s bouts with acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Moreover, her analysis of acedia reveals its burden not just on individuals but on whole societies— and that the “restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair that we struggle with today are the ancient demon of acedia in modern dress.”

An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norris’s own experience, Acedia & Me is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important.