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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The author describes his sick daughter's behavior as a way of striking out to be what?

2. Who refers to themselves as the "last rose of summer?"

3. In what month during1936 did the author's father commit suicide?

4. According to the author, what does God give us that helps us finish with the past and remove the power of the past to hurt us?

5. After his father's suicide, where did the author's mom move the family?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the author's mother have so few friends as she got older?

2. How did the author's mother's aging affect her sons' lives?

3. How does the author describe his father's suicide?

4. Why did the author feel like a dwarf as depicted in C. S. Lewis' "The Last Battle?"

5. What did the author deal with in first two autobiographies?

6. Why/how does the author identify with one of the stained glass images?

7. What was on the stained glass pieces in the author's office?

8. How did the author's mother's aging affect her life?

9. Why is the author telling his secrets?

10. According to the author, how does memory help us finish with the past?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain what the author means when he writes that by watching and listening we are praying. How does God speak to us in quietness? What is "God's place" in us? What deadens us to God's presence within us? How does Psalm 131 illustrate these points from the author?

Essay Topic 2

On page 10 of the book, the author writes that "don't talk, don't trust, don't feel" is supposed to be the unwritten law of dysfunctional families. How does this "law" manifest itself in the author's life as a child when his father commits suicide, as well as in the immediate events following his father's death (e.g. the lack of a funeral, the family move out of the country, the mother's behavior, ...); and how does the "law manifest itself in later events involving the author and his brother's relationship with their mother as she aged?

Essay Topic 3

The author talks about the pluralism of Harvard Divinity School. What makes Harvard pluralistic (as described by the author)? What happens in the author's Harvard classroom that helps him conclude that pluralism can become factionalism? What is factionalism (as presented in the book)?

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