Lapsed

Monica Dux

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Paperback

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English

ABC
07 April 2021

Biography; Memoirs; Religion & beliefs; Religious issues & debates; Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church; Biography - Australian

Losing your religion is harder than it looks ...

From devout 10-year-old performing the part of Jesus in a primary school play to blaspheming, undergraduate atheist Monica Dux and her attitude to the Catholic Church changed profoundly over a decade. Eventually, she calmed down and was just 'lapsed'.

Then, on a family trip to Rome, her young daughter expressed a desire to be baptised. Monica found herself re-examining her own childhood and how Catholicism had shaped her. Was it really out of her system or was it in her blood for life?

In Lapsed, Monica sets out to find the answer. Her investigations lead her to test a miracle cure in Lourdes and visit the grave of a headless Saint who claimed to be married to Christ (and wore a wedding ring made of his foreskin to prove it). She speaks to canon lawyers, abuse survivors and even a nun who insists that the Virgin Mary starts her car every morning.

With wry humour and razor-sharp observations, Lapsed is the story of one woman's attempt to exorcise her religious upbringing and answer the question: Is Catholicism like a blood group and, if so, is it possible to get a total transfusion?

'Enlightening, forensic and laugh-out-loud funny.' - JANE CARO

'A frank, funny and heartfelt exorcism of our need to believe in a man in the sky.' - SHAUN MICALLEF

By: Monica Dux
Imprint: ABC
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 430g
ISBN: 9780733340819
ISBN 10: 0733340814
Publication Date: 07 April 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Monica Dux is a writer and a columnist for The Age. She is a frequent panellist and speaker, and a regular guest on ABC radio. She was a founding board member of the Stella Prize, and the Feminist Writers Festival. In a former life, Monica researched and taught history at the University of Melbourne, worked at Melbourne University Publishing and on The Monthly magazine. She is the author of Lapsed and Things I Didn't Expect (when I was expecting), co-author of The Great Feminist Denial and editor of the anthology Mothermorphosis. Her career highlight is playing Jesus in her primary school's passion play, in which she brilliantly choreographed her own liturgical dance moves during the Last Supper.