The Passion of Reverend Nash
Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions 

1. Early on in the novel, in a letter Jordanna writes to her husband, Daniel, she refers to there being "no metamorphosis for all that we have lost. It is only what it is. And when I wake up too early, before I've established my defenses, the rationalizations, the tools of my trade. . . . I know it for what it really is—eternal pain." Does Jordanna view faith as a rationalization?

2. What's the significance of June's having sent Jordanna the Elizabeth Bishop poem, "One Art?"

3. At Mary Jane Krull's deathbed Jordanna picks up Mary Jane's bible and reads the Old Testament story of Hannah pledging her not-yet-conceived son to God. What was the significance of this story to Mary Jane and her husband? To Jordanna and Daniel?

4. In Chapter 6, Jordanna remembers back to the transformative experience of coming across Matthew 10:39 ". . . he who loses his life for my sake will find it." What does this passage mean to Jordanna as a young woman? What does it mean to her by the end of the novel?

5. Why is Jordanna more capable of being compassionate to Tara than June? How, in the end, does Jordanna manage to have an impact on Tara?

6. After June's suicide, the Hartford paper runs an article entitled "Religion as Therapy, a Dangerous Practice?" What do you think?

7. One of June's brothers compares June's watching Eve die of cancer to the trauma suffered by soldiers in battle. He suggests that perhaps not enough room was made for her grief. June's mother-in-law counters that not every soldier returns from the front traumatized. Some people bury family members and are able to move on. Jordanna tells Abby that there's no such thing as closure when someone dies. "Closure is for the people who comfort the bereaved." How do the different characters in the novel grapple with grief? How have you and people you know coped with loss?

8. In chapter 15 Jordanna recounts a dream she had of Jesus emerging from behind a hill without arms ". . . Jesus of the mind and not the body." What does the dream mean to her? How does Jordanna's dream compare to spiritual dreams you may have had?

9. Jordanna recalls her disappointment in the medical community's ability to explain why she lost her babies. "What good's science if you can't get the . . . answers to the questions about the body?" How does Jordanna's need for a medical explanation compare to June's demand that she "be accountable . . . for the work of the Divine, as if she were his operative here on earth?"

10. Abby and Jordanna argue after the All Soul's Service. Jordanna can't believe that Abby respects her so little. Abby says she respects the truth. Jordanna responds by saying that love is the ultimate truth, and Abby, waiting until she is out of earshot, mumbles that Jordanna doesn't know what love is. Do you agree with Abby or Jordanna?

11. What's the significance of Jordanna's relationship with her oldest nephew, Brendan?

12. Why does June leave Jane Kenyon's poem "Let Evening Come" as a suicide note for Jordanna? What does it mean to Jordanna when she first reads it? What does it mean near the end of the book when she hears it read at June's funeral service?

13. Tara concludes her sermon with the poem "Saint Francis and the Sow." Why does the poem speak to her? To you?

14. What do you think will happen to Jordanna in the years after the close of this novel?