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Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life

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In another review, this book has been accused of being "false and misleading." Thinking about this accusation, I am reminded of a passage in Teresa's autobiography where certain confessors attempt to convince Teresa that her mystical raptures and visions are of an unholy origin. After some judicious consideration, Teresa decided that this couldn't be so---they were most certainly from God. After all, she reasoned, would the Devil really give such gifts as these which have only served to intoxicate her more and more with her Beloved Sovereign and which seem to have had such a salutary effect upon her character? And following this line of thought, I would suggest, as someone who has read and thoroughly enjoyed this translation, that a translation can never be anything but an interpretation, but the true mark of its success is in its transformative effect upon the reader. And though I am no stranger to spiritual literature, I often found myself awed by Teresa's spiritual mastery, her holy audacity and deep humility while reading this work. So I feel as if I must conclude that whatever material differences may exist between the original Spanish and this English translation, the sense and spirit have been translated in such a way as to have affected this reader quite profoundly. To my mind, Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life by Mirabai Starr is a book of beauty and profound spiritual value, a true spiritual classic. I highly recommend this translation to anyone, Christian or otherwise, who seeks to deepen in spiritual practice, especially the practice of contemplative prayer, or to any who are simply looking for good models of holiness in the past still relevant for us today.

Mirabai Starr's inspired translation invokes a living voice for Teresa that vividly expresses her profound wisdom, incomparable wit, commonsense worldview, and uncompromising honesty. I felt as though Teresa was speaking directly to me in present time ... as if we were sharing an intimate conversation.

What emerges is a multidimensional portrayal of Teresa as a woman, nun, intrepid reformer, teacher, mystic, and saint.

This is the fascinating story of a soul whose trajectory to sainthood was often impeded by struggle, self-recrimination, doubt, and frustration -- which gives us all hope for our own progress. Teresa was a force-of-nature, deeply pious and humble, and yet fiercely determined to deliver her message.

Ms. Starr's translation is a true work of scholarship that animates Teresa's life with remarkable realism and humanity. Teresa's powerful teachings are deftly translated in all their authentic splendor, rendering them accessible and eternally relevant.

This is not a wooden translation that obscures the humanity of its subject. It is an engaging read about one of the most charismatic mystics of all time.

This is a lively, fluid, immensely readable version of the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, a magnificent spiritual classic. Whether you will thrill to it as much as some reviewers here, or disdain the translator's choices, as have others, will have much to do with what you seek.

Any translation project is bedeviled by the twin aims of faithfulness and accessibility tangling with one another (not to mention the translator). The degree of priority given to one objective over the other will have varying impacts on different readers. One translation may touch you far more tenderly than another, yet leave your neighbor cold. Or it may affect the same person in different ways at different times. Indeed, reading more than one translation of spiritual texts is often beneficial, as each may tap distinct strengths of the original, leading to a richer composite.

I enjoyed the liveliness of this translation, and found it absorbing on a level that more exact renderings struggle to attain. I admit, though, that some of the translation choices "missed the mark" for me, at times making Teresa feel stifled--like having a phone conversation dotted with bursts of static. It also made me itch to uncover what lay hidden behind the at times hyper-contemporary idiom. In the end, upon finishing this version, I found myself aching to engage the saint without interference, and reaching for another version of the work in order to do so. Still, I don't regret the time I spent reading this translation.

So, if you seek to encounter the vibrancy and style of this grand, wild, fabulous saint in a compelling and readable translation of her autobiography, the eloquence and immediacy of this edition will be most welcome. If you prefer to meet Teresa on her own terms, in her original context and expression, without learning Spanish (with a sixteenth century twist, at that), then you will likely find greater profit in the more precise translations (by Peers or Kavanaugh, for example). But, if you choose according to your disposition, the vigor of St. Teresa will penetrate idiosyncrasies and come alive for you. The woman faced down the Spanish Inquisition--she can stand up to a gaggle of translators!

Mirabai Starr is a genius once again. Having read her previous translations, "Dark Night of the Soul" by John of the Cross, and Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila--I expected "The Book of My Life" to be compelling. But I didn't expect it to knock my socks off. Teresa's Book of Lives paints a portrait of a mystic in the making, and over time we begin to see where Teresa is headed---the unitive state.

With one eye on precise translation and the other on the meaning behind every word--Starr sees clearly not only what Teresa was saying but also the mystery to which her words point. Starr introduces us to a Teresa who is down to earth but capable of soaring, nevertheless. Through her open translation Miabai Starr opens the eye of our understanding as to the unitive state toward which Teresa is headed. When Teresa longs for the unitive state, Mirabai Starr helps us get in touch with that longing.

This ability to bring Teresa close, to make her live, to make her breathe, to ask her what it means to be human--to find ourselves in Teresa and find her in us--this is the greatest gift of "The Book of My Life."

The beauty and art of Mirabai Starr's translations of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross is her ability to convey their lives and souls and consciousness for today's seeker. The place and time in which Teresa lived is so completely different from even the monastics of our day that to render her every word, including her copious remarks of self-deprecation, would be an injustice to her spirit. She was a free thinker of her day and powerful in a way that was almost unknown for a nun in medieval Spain, but her world was significantly different than anything any of us would experience today, whether we are a monastic or a lay person. Mirabai's greatest triumph is her ability to communicate with the saints through her meditative and prayerful listening heart and to convey their spirit and message to seekers who come from diverse traditions. What comes to mind are the renderings of Rumi by Coleman Barks, the original language, metaphors and nuances of which are simply impossible to translate into contemporary English. It is only by becoming a "drinking buddy" with Rumi that Coleman has been able to bring Rumi's ecstatic poetry into our world. This, i feel, is a genius that Mirabai Starr possesses, to bridge the world of these Spanish mystics and ours so that their aspirations ignite ours. For such a glimpse into the souls of these saints, i am deeply grateful.

As a 30-year student of comparative religion, Eastern philosophy, Judaism and Christianity, I was appalled at this flippant and superficial updating of Saint Teresa's profound spirituality, vibrant sensuality, shrewd expression of courage and feminine shakti. Mirabai Starr styles herself as a seeker of spiritual truth but is clearly just a refugee from her own religious roots. Along the way, she has found that she, like her husband Ganga Das (AKA Jeff Little), can make a decent living by becoming a lay preacher. Ms. Starr asserts that her translation of Teresa's Life aims to revitalize its appeal to the modern world; instead, she eviscerates its passion, attenuates its complex psychology and effects a childishly relativistic, "now-ist" dismissal of its important semiology. Ms. Starr decides that the concept of sin should be amoralized as error ("missing the mark"...as if murder were merely an incidental miscalibration), that the value of practicing obedience to promote humility is valueless (she changes Teresa's formal address of superiors to simply "you") and that Teresa's self-deprecations are just regrettable sublimations of low self-esteem. Finally, the oppression of women by men in the 16th Century was a fact, but not a relevant one in Teresa's life of love and service.

Mirabai Starr is a gifted interpreter of the Spanish mystics--John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. In her newest endeavor, "The Book of My Life" by Teresa of Avila, Starr reclaims some of Teresa's original passion and integrity as a woman and a powerbroker in the Church at the time. Starr's approach of reading deeply into the original text and liberating it from the bonds of historical patriarchal and doctrinal rectitude allows the reader to know Teresa as the courageous spiritual and social innovator that she was. Starr's window into how Teresa internalizes her visions in prayer and embodies the wounds of Christ will be immediately recognizable to women readers--as will Starr's rendering of how Teresa struggles with authority and power. This is a must read book for women who are rooted in faith and seek to engage the powers of the world.

I am no Bible scholar nor am I a Catholic. I am of the Evangelical corner of Christianity. This is the first biography of any Catholic saint that I've ever read. To me, Teresa's story is very personal and is certainly no coincidence that I read it at this particular time in my life. I have no idea how much of her writing in anguish about how she feels she failed the Lord has been edited out, but after reading the book, I have an understanding that she must have been quite severe on herself. That is often my own struggle. Her story has given me a tremendous amount of encouragement in pleasing the Lord which was my hope when I picked up the book. How you approach this book may depend entirely on the condition of your heart and whether or not you were lead to read about Teresa's life.

Mirabai Starr's review makes Teresa of Avila come alive for the twenty-first century spiritual seeker. Faithfulness to spiritual teachers of the past requires us to hear their voices in the language and images that they would use were they alive today as well as the voice of their own time. The Book of My Life is an invitation to the reader to explore the book of her or his own life and experience God's presence in the ordinary as well as extraordinary moments of life. Mirabai Starr has the gift of enabling the voices of the past to resonate in new and exciting ways for our time. This translation of the Book of My life will awaken today's readers to the spiritual insights of an earlier era and inspire their own spiritual adventures in our time.

I thought this book would be written with old fashioned verbiage. Not so. The translator is thoughtful and explains her rationale and how she came to know St. Theresa through her autobiography.
Worth it!!