The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila : A Biography / Carlos Eire.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eire, Carlos M. N., Author.

Series:

Lives of great religious books.

Lives of Great Religious Books ; 47

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Teresa, of Avila, Saint, 1515-1582.

Teresa.

Carmelite Nuns--Spain--Biography.

Carmelite Nuns.

Christian saints--Spain--Biography.

Christian saints.

Christian women saints--Spain--Biography.

Christian women saints.

Avila (Spain)--Biography.

Avila (Spain).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages).

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The life and many afterlives of one of the most enduring mystical testaments ever writtenThe Life of Saint Teresa of Avila is among the most remarkable accounts ever written of the human encounter with the divine. The Life is not really an autobiography at all, but rather a confession written for inquisitors by a nun whose raptures and mystical claims had aroused suspicion. Despite its troubled origins, the book has had a profound impact on Christian spirituality for five centuries, attracting admiration from readers as diverse as mystics, philosophers, artists, psychoanalysts, and neurologists. How did a manuscript once kept under lock and key by the Spanish Inquisition become one of the most inspiring religious books of all time?National Book Award winner Carlos Eire tells the story of this incomparable spiritual masterpiece, examining its composition and reception in the sixteenth century, the various ways its mystical teachings have been interpreted and reinterpreted across time, and its enduring influence in our own secular age. The Life became an iconic text of the Counter-Reformation, was revered in Franco's Spain, and has gone on to be read as a feminist manifesto, a literary work, and even as a secular text. But as Eire demonstrates in this vibrant and evocative book, Teresa's confession is a cry from the heart to God and an audacious portrayal of mystical theology as a search for love.Here is the essential companion to the Life, one woman's testimony to the reality of mystical experience and a timeless affirmation of the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface: The Character of the Vida

Chapter 1. Teresa's Life Story

Chapter 2. How, When, and Why the Book Was Written

Chapter 3. The Mysticism of the Vida

Chapter 4. The Life of the Vida, 1600- 1800

Chapter 5. The Life of the Vida in Art

Chapter 6. From Enlightenment to Modernity: Skeptics, Seekers, Psychoanalysts, Fascists

Chapter 7. The Post- Mystical Intermillennial Vida

Epilogue. Doctor of the Church, Sign of Contradiction

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781787854154

1787854159

9780691189376

0691189374

OCLC:

1096185382