The Body, Pain and Faith, by Darcey Steinke
By Rev. Michael Plekon, April 21, 2026
Who should read this?
We all have bodies. We all encounter suffering and pain in our lives, physical, psychological and spiritual. We all seek meaning in our lives and world. So, we all would benefit from this wonderful mosaic of the human experience of the body, pain and faith created by Darcey Steinke. Her beautiful memoir Easter Everywhere, and the sometimes autobiographical fictional works such as Through the Water, Suicide Blonde, Jesus Saves and Milk are rich, gripping excursions, guided by her meticulous sense of detail to the small aspects of our experience. This is the Door is a provocative journey of discovery of the experiences of having a body, being a body, of pain and suffering, and of the search for meaning in all this. Darcey Steinke wonderfully captures the intensity of these experiences, at times to the point of making one want to look away, yet return immediately to the drama of our bodies, pain and our wanting to make sense of it all.
How does the author carry it off?
The chapters form a physical, psychological and spiritual anatomy course that gets to the core of the reader. We travel from the spine to the knees, then to the heart, brain, skin and breast. We listen to medical experts, philosophers, spiritual masters from our own time and back through the centuries. We are faced with remarkable resistance and courage of those facing of excruciating pain: Frieda Kahlo, Franz Kafka, and Simone Weil, among others. We hear from Augustine, Luther and Calvin, Kant, C.S. Lewis, and Aquinas and this is but a partial list of those whose commentary she shares. She also is generous in allowing us to hear from great women mystics and writers, Catherine of Siena, Marguerite Porete, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Margery Kempe among others.
As is her wont, Steinke includes her mother and her father, Lutheran pastor and chaplain Paul Steinke, also her brothers, daughter, husband, former students and teachers. That’s who you get to hang with in Steinke’s narratives, a veritable parade of those whose lives intersect with hers. There is much dysfunction and mess but great love. Steinke includes herself in the exploration too. The physical dimension is amplified by her focus on mental and emotional suffering, on heartache, the very real pain of losing partners. And the marvelous pilgrimage concludes with her exploration of the soul and of spiritual healing. She takes us to the miraculous spring of Lourdes where the Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette Soubirous and where throngs have come for prayer and healing though the waters for centuries.
Why does it matter and why is this book significant / important?
This is the Door confronts us with what is universal, the physical, psychological and spiritual experiences that are unavoidable since they are rooted in what makes us human, what establishes our identities and how we try to make sense of ourselves and the world. This book is just that basic and essential. I cannot imagine a reader not being moved, even troubled but also deepened, enriched by what Steinke lays out here. As someone who tries regularly to address communities of faith about God, ourselves and the world, I regard this book, whether intended or not, as a sustained reflection of the core of what it is to be a person, at all the dimensions already noted. It is a statement that people of our distracted, doubting, even despairing time can hear. And especially in our time when we must also deal with often near insanity, cruelty and hatred in the actions of political leaders and government officials.
What will you (the reader) like the most?
Darcey Steinke’s distinctive voice, her experience of much physical and psychological pain and response to it, her encyclopedic citation of centuries of study and commentary by all kinds of scholars, and her master story telling of the experiences a of a great many others.
What will most inspire you (the reader)?
The many stories and words of women and men encountering pain and suffering of all kinds. They are sometimes overcome by these, but equally able to find meaning in them, understand why we all share these experiences. Thus, there is an affirmation of the gift of the body, with all its weakness and ultimate failure in sickness and death, an affirmation of the gift of being able to live and experience ourselves, others and the world around us.
Darcey Steinke, This is the Door: The Body, Pain and Faith, NY: HarperOne, 2026, xviii+ 265pp.
Reviewer: The Rev. Michael Plekon, PhD, Emeritus Professor, The City University of New York, Baruch College, priest in the Episcopal Church, most recently author of Community as Church, Church as Community and Ministry Matters, Communion and Community, Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2021, 2024, 2026.
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