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5 minutes with Kate Bowler
We stole 5 minutes of Kate Bowler's time to find out more about the story behind her new book Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved.
London-born Kate Bowler, a 35-year-old theology professor, is thriving in her job, married to her school sweetheart and besotted with her newborn son. Everything in her life seems to point towards 'blessing'.
Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.
What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists that everything happens for a reason?
How would you describe yourself in five words?
Cheerful. Sarcastic. Pensive. Inexhaustible. And unhelpfully curious.
What was your favourite thing to do as a child?
I was a big reader, and I played “House” a lot with my sisters with a lot of overly developed characters. My personas had a lot of dramatic relationships and surprising reveals. We understood Soap Operas before we ever saw one.
Favourite pastime today?
I love traveling and I love my friends, so I’m usually traveling to meet friends.
What was your dream when you were younger?
I thought I would be a singing cellist. No one told me that was a terrible idea. Which it was.
Your area of academic study has largely focussed on the prosperity gospel, have you ever been convinced by this line of theology? If so why/why not?
I always thought I was quite skeptical of the idea that God wants to give you health and wealth, so I would have said NO. But when I got sick, I realized I had always been expecting God to let me live out a pleasant, middle-class existence forever. I was a little horrified that I had been a bit of a secret believe in the prosperity gospel, after all.
In your book you explain what it was like to discover your diagnosis, if you could offer one piece of advice to someone going through the same thing what would you say?
Find one person you lets you be unfailingly honest. Everyone else will expect you to be brave, but you are allowed to feel broken.
What has been the most surprising thing about your experience of tragedy?
Cancer felt like I had discovered a secret to the universe. I felt broken open, but it allowed me to see other people’s pain and humanity in a whole new way.
What prompted you to write your experiences down in a book?
I didn’t so much write it as it poured out of me. I wanted to be honest, and it was so much easier to do that on the page.
What are your hopes for what this book will do in the hands of your readers?
I hope that it will allow people going through hard times to feel a little less alone. Being vulnerable is exhausting work, made even harder by the prescriptions of well-meaning outsiders. There are so few formulas for how to get through this life, and I hope that everyone will feel a little more freedom to be human.
If there is one thing that has helped you hold on to your faith in God during the past few years, what would they be?
When I was too sick to act terribly spiritual, I felt the presence of God like never before. That was a real lesson to me. When I need God, God will actually be there. It made me feel a lot less burdened to be the right kind of Christian, and a lot more confident that God is the sort that doesn’t abandon us.
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