Peter Tyler - Teresa of Avila: Mystical Theology and Spirituality in the Carmelite Tradition

Teresa of Avila

Even in the celebration of her 500th anniversary, there still remains the danger of belittling the great Teresa, of explaining her in terms of existing stereotypes of female mysticism. This book goes to some lengths to undo that false presumption, and so releases the real Teresa from her admirers. What emerges is an edgy prophetic figure of real intellectual genius, someone still to be reckoned with politically as well as spiritually. The editors are to be congratulated on their astute choice of commentators.

Sarah Coakley, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University

This innovative book offers an original insight into the context and times of St Teresa of Avila (151582) as well as exploring her contemporary relevance from the perspective of some of the foremost thinkers and scholars in the Teresian field today including Professors Julia Kristeva, Rowan Williams and Bernard McGinn. As well as these academic approaches there will be chapters by friars and nuns of the Carmelite order living out the Carmelite charism in todays world. The book addresses both theory and practice, and crosses traditional disciplinary and denominational boundaries including medieval studies, philosophy, psychology, pastoral and systematic theology thus demonstrating her continuing relevance in a variety of contemporary multi-disciplinary areas.

Prof. Peter Tyler is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spirituality at St Marys University, Twickenham. He is also a spiritual director and registered psychotherapist. His recent publications include The Pursuit of the Soul: Psychoanalysis, Soul-Making and the Christian Tradition (T & T Clark, 2016), Teresa of Avila: Doctor of the Soul (Bloomsbury 2013), The Bloomsbury Guide to Christian Spirituality (Bloomsbury 2012, co-edited with Richard Woods) and The Return to the Mystical: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Teresa of Avila and the Christian Mystical Tradition (Continuum 2011). He has contributed much to the ongoing debate between psychology and spirituality and is Co-Editor of Vinayasadhana, a new journal for Psycho-Spiritual formation.

Dr Edward Howells is Senior Lecturer in Christian Spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London. Publications include John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila: Mystical Knowing and Selfhood (Crossroad 2002); Sources of Transformation: Revitilising Christian Spirituality (Continuum 2010, co-edited with Peter Tyler); and various journal articles and book chapters on Christian spirituality and mystical theology. He is currently working on the Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology, co-edited with Mark McIntosh (Oxford, forthcoming 2017).

Mystical theology and spirituality in the Carmelite tradition

Edited by Peter Tyler and Edward Howells

First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 selection and editorial matter, Peter Tyler and Edward Howells; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Peter Tyler and Edward Howells to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tyler, Peter, 1963 author, editor. | Howells, Edward, author, editor.
Title: Teresa of Avila: mystical theology and spirituality in the Carmelite tradition / edited by Peter Tyler and Edward Howells.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016030724
Subjects: LCSH: Teresa, of Avila, Saint, 15151582. | Teresa, of Avila, Saint, 15151582Influence. | CarmelitesSpiritual life. | MysticismCatholic Church. | SpiritualityCatholic Church.
Classification: LCC BX4700.T4 T425 2017 | DDC 282.092dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030724

ISBN: 978-1-4724-7884-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-61204-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra

PROF. PETER TYLER AND DR EDWARD HOWELLS

PART I
Teresa in her context

PROF. BERNARD MCGINN

FR WILFRID MCGREAL OCARM

PROF. PETER TYLER

DR EDWARD HOWELLS

PART II
The impact of Teresa

DR ROWAN WILLIAMS

FR MATTHEW BLAKE OCD

FR IAIN MATTHEW OCD

PART III
Teresa in the twenty-first century

PROF. JULIA KRISTEVA

PROF. GILLIAN T. W. AHLGREN

SR JO ROBSON OCD, SR MARY OF ST JOSEPH OCD AND SR PHILOMENA SARGEANT OCD

Even Spaniards familiar with her books, wrote the great British Hispanist, Edgar Allison Peers, are continually baffled when asked the precise meaning of phrases which at first sight may seem perfectly simple (Allison Peers CW 1: xviii). While Fr Kieran Kavanaugh OCD, her most recent Carmelite translator, stated in the preface to his translation in 1976 that working on her text was like working on puzzles, even he could never be sure that some of these puzzles had been solved (Kavanaugh and Rodriguez CW 1: 48). Teresas texts continue to defy easy translation and though referencing the work of Allison Peers and Kavanaugh/Rodriguez most of our contributors have opted to make their own translations into English. Where possible we have referred to the closest edition to Teresas original, that edited by Efrn de la Madre de Dios and Otger Steggink in the Obras Completas de Santa Teresa de Jsus in the series Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos (BAC, Madrid 1997). As the first full English translations of her work by Kavanaugh/Rodriguez and Allison Peers rely heavily on the older critical edition by P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, we have also turned to this edition for certain passages as published in Santa Teresa Obras Completas edited by Toms Alvarez in the edition of Monte Carmelo (BMC, Burgos, 1998). Some of the work has necessitated returning to facsimiles of the original autographs of Teresas works and here we have turned to the facsimile editions produced by Toms Alvarez for BMC and the venerable first photostatic edition of the original manuscript of The Interior Castle produced by Archbishop Cardinal Lluch in 1882. For abbreviations for all Teresian texts used please see the bibliography.

Having completed our task we are aware more than ever that anything achieved in this work is due entirely to five hundred years of painstaking and loving Teresian scholarship conducted by generations of wise interpreters. Only by standing on the shoulders of such giants can we hope to peer into the future. Our hope for this book would be that it will pass on that tradition to a new generation of scholars and readers.