Return from exile

the long version

At midlife, a spiritually hungry author of self-help books leaves her professional life to enroll in divinity school. Return from Exile is the engaging, often profound story of Carol Matzkin Orsborn's first year at Vanderbilt Divinity School, the year that transformed her life. In this spiritual "pressure cooker," we share the author's friendships with similarly searching students, her encounters with challenging and supportive professors, and her first serious engagement with Jewish and Christian literatures. In a largely Christian environment, Orsborn confronts her unconsciously held prejudices and loyalties and discovers the hidden riches within her own tradition. Eventually she finds her way back to the heart and soul of Judaism, but it is a very different Judaism from the one she left behind.