The Counter Reformation: St. Teresa of Avila

This biography captures the combination of down-to-earth humanity and profound, enriching spirituality that is Teresa of Avila's hallmark. This balanced portrait of an irreverent, intense, and fiery Renaissance woman and her times includes moving excerpts from her letters and sublime spiritual writings. Her unconventional, progressive views on prayer and worship, her outstanding administrative and literary talents, her travels around Spain to found and supervise convents, and how she spent much of her life under the scrutiny of the Inquisition are all detailed. For readers of any faith or none, this book brings to life an extraordinarily ordinary, lovable, and inspiring individual.--From publisher description.

History has judged Teresa of Avila a saint, a reformer who stands with such figures as Francis of Assisi in bringing new light to the Church through the radiance and practicality of her love for God and neighbor.In "Teresa of Avila:Her Story",Shirley du Boulay captures that compelling combination for which St.Teresa is remembered:down to earth humanity and profound,enriching spirituality.The result is a portrit of a remarkable woman,including moving excerpts from her letters and other spiritual writings.In the pages of this biography an "extraordinarily ordinary", lovable,and inspiring woman lives again.-Jacket.

With few exceptions, representations of Renaissance women were created by men. The Spanish saint, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), who chose to represent herself, was one of those exceptions. What prompted her to write Book of Her Life, Interior Castle, and other works? What does the self-portrait of this sixteenth-century nun, mystic, and founder of convents reveal about its author, the church, state, and role of women?St. Teresa of Avila, an innovative analysis of Teresa's autobiographical writings, explores these and many other questions. Bringing to bear a knowledge of Inquisition studies, theory of autobiography, scriptural hermeneutics, and hagiography, Carole Slade defines Teresa's writings as a project of self-interpretation undertaken mainly as the result of the perceived, later realized, threat of an accusation of heresy. Being female and of paternal Jewish ancestry, Teresa was vulnerable to such a charge. Teresa's writing project presented her with serious difficulties. Judicial confession, her prescribed genre, presumed the writer's guilt, while the subordinate female script precluded a defense against the suspicion that her mystical experiences came from the devil. Through careful textual analysis, Slade demonstrates that Teresa exploited the nuances of numerous genres - hagiography, New World chronicle, mystical theological treatise, and early novel - to create an innocent textual persona and depict herself in heroic terms. A signal contribution to our understanding of Teresa's rhetorical and literary talent and life circumstances, this book will engage readers across a broad range of disciplines. Publisher's description.

Undoubtedly this is a complete and satisfying introduction to St.Teresa for the general reader,with its well balanced, reasonable interpretation of her life and times.It is full of practical spiritual advice that the ordinary reader might never approach from other sources.Furthermore, it strips the peculiar from the sainthood and makes sanctity-on the individual level-a perfect reasonable aim.-jacket.

A masterful biography of a remarkable woman who was a mystic and foundress, the reformed of Carmel, a doctor of the science of divine love, and now, proclaimed in 1970, a Doctor of the Universal Church. Using her own writings and other original sources, the author has successfully described her incredible spiritual drama, the prodigious activities of her life, and the historical setting in which she lived.

Difficult as writing a book was for Teresa, she preferred it to letter-writing, a drudgery that cost her more than all the pitiful roads and sorry weather experienced on her journeys through Spain. What proved painful for her has proved a treasure for us, a collection of letters that scholars consider unparalleled in Spanish literature. With its introductions, endnote, biographical sketches, and, above all, fresh translation, this first volume of Teresa's Collected Letters opens a new door into the fascinating world of this saint, one of the greatest women in history. -Jacket.

"The Avila of Saint Teresa" provides both a fascinating account of social and religious change in one important Catilian city and a historical analysis of the life and work of the religious mystic Saint Teresa of Jesus. Jodi Bilinkoff's rich socioeconomic history of sixteenth-century Avila illuminates the conditions that helped to shape the religious reforms for which the city's most famous citizen is celebrated. Bilinkoff takes as her subject the period during which Avila became center of intense religious activity and the home of a number of influential mystics and religious reformers. During this time, she notes, urban expansion and increased economic opportunity fostered the social and political aspirations of a new "middle class" of merchants, professionals, and minor clerics. This group supported the creation of religious institutions that fostered such values as individual spiritual revitalization, religious poverty, and apostolic service to the urban community. According to Blinkoff, these reform movements provided an alternative to the traditional, dynastic style of spirituality expressed by the ruling elite, and profoundly influenced Saint Teresa in her renewal of Carmelite monastic life. -Jacket

This issue of Carmelite Studies presents new insights into the lives and writings of individuals who knew Teresa of Avila in life and who,after her death in 1582,worked to propagate and defend her legacy,including the illustrious nuns Ana de San Bartolome,Ana de Jesus,Maria de San Jose,and Ana de San Agustin,and her close male confidant and collaborator,Jeronimo Gracian de la Madre de Dios.A further focus of the essays is the reception of the Teresian heritage by individuals outside the order,as mediated by these early Discalced Carmelites and by Teresa's published writings.-Jacket.

Here is the story of a saint and sinner, a troubled teenager, a delinquent daughter, a great lover, and a renowned writer - the first great woman of genius and of letters and life, the poet who is patron of us all: Mother Teresa of Avila. Teresa can be likened to other great women of history: Sappho, Emily Bronte, and Joan of Arc. She traveled undaunted every road of Spain; she was a characterized by her spirituality and the heavenly bridegroom who was her guiding mentor all through her life. -Jacket