Teresa of Avila (Outstanding Christian Thinkers) [Paperback]

Rowan Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000 | Series: Outstanding Christian Thinkers

Together with her contemporary and friend, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila represents the highest point of Catholic spiritual writing in the troubled age of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. She is also one of the founding figures of modern Spanish literature. Her vivid descriptions of her experiences in prayer have long made her an object of intense interest to psychologists of religion. This work makes use of historical research on Teresa and her society and provides an introduction to all her major works. It shows Teresa as more than just a chronicler of paranormal states of consciousness. She emerges as a genuine theologian in her own right, with a powerful contribution to make to contemporary understanding. Above all, Teresa is chiefly concerned to develop a model of Christian life as friendship with God, a God who abandons status and dignity for the sake of human beings. In this book, Rowan Williams also shows how all Teresa's major writings concentrate on this incarnation theme. In a final chapter he argues that Christian mysticism is itself deeply misunderstood unless it is seen within an incarnation framework.

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About the Author

<p>The Rt. Hon. and Most Reverend Rowan Williams is Archbishop of Canterbury. He was formerly Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oxford</st1:place></st1:city> and Archbishop of Wales.</p> > --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826450814
• ISBN-13: 978-0826450814
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,824,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rowan Douglas Williams was born in Swansea, south Wales on 14 June 1950, into a Welsh-speaking family, and was educated at Dynevor School in Swansea and Christ's College Cambridge where he studied theology. He studied for his doctorate - in the theology of Vladimir Lossky, a leading figure in Russian twentieth-century religious thought - at Wadham College Oxford, taking his DPhil in 1975. After two years as a lecturer at the College of the Resurrection, near Leeds, he was ordained deacon in Ely Cathedral before returning to Cambridge.

From 1977, he spent nine years in academic and parish work in Cambridge: first at Westcott House, being ordained priest in 1978, and from 1980 as curate at St George's, Chesterton. In 1983 he was appointed as a lecturer in Divinity in the university, and the following year became dean and chaplain of Clare College. 1986 saw a return to Oxford now as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church; he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989, and became a fellow of the British Academy in 1990. He is also an accomplished poet and translator.

In 1991 Professor Williams accepted election and consecration as bishop of Monmouth, a diocese on the Welsh borders, and in 1999 on the retirement of Archbishop Alwyn Rice Jones he was elected Archbishop of Wales, one of the 38 primates of the Anglican Communion. Thus it was that, in July 2002, with eleven years experience as a diocesan bishop and three as a leading primate in the Communion, Archbishop Williams was confirmed on 2 December 2002 as the 104th bishop of the See of Canterbury: the first Welsh successor to St Augustine of Canterbury and the first since the mid-thirteenth century to be appointed from beyond the English Church.

Dr Williams is acknowledged internationally as an outstanding theological writer, scholar and teacher. He has been involved in many theological, ecumenical and educational commissions. He has written extensively across a very wide range of related fields of professional study - philosophy, theology (especially early and patristic Christianity), spirituality and religious aesthetics - as evidenced by his bibliography. He has also written throughout his career on moral, ethical and social topics and, since becoming archbishop, has turned his attention increasingly on contemporary cultural and interfaith issues.

As Archbishop of Canterbury his principal responsibilities are however pastoral - leading the life and witness of the Church of England in general and his own diocese in particular by his teaching and oversight, and promoting and guiding the communion of the world-wide Anglican Church by the globally recognized ministry of unity that attaches to the office of bishop of the see of Canterbury.

His interests include music, fiction and languages.

In 1981 Dr Williams married Jane Paul, a lecturer in theology, whom he met while living and working in Cambridge. They have a daughter and a son.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful spirit, September 20, 2005

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FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Teresa of Avila (Paperback)

Teresa of Avila is one of the masters of spiritual discipline and spiritual writing in the broad tradition of Christendom, and together with her friend John (St. John of the Cross) is one of the pillars of the spiritual world of the Reformation/Counter-Reformation period.

Rowan Williams, current Archbishop of Canterbury, has put together a beautiful little text that looks at Teresa's spiritual classics and ideas. Williams gives a brief biographical sketch, in which he traces the life of this daughter of a house of minor nobility, constantly plagued with illness, and who entered a Carmelite convent without her father's knowledge or consent (a quite bold move at that time). She lived through the beginnings of the Reformation with all the theological, social and political upheaval that entailed, and often raised suspicion with her own activities, in a world already suspicious of residule Judaism (post-inquisition) on the one hand, and protestant reformist ideas on the other.

Williams' first chapter deals with the ideas of purity and honour in the social world of the time. Purity included an idea of purity of the blood (distinguishing more 'pure' Christians from those who were or were descended from conversos, those who converted from Judaism under the Inquisition - one can sense a foreshadow of later European events here). Honour was of supreme importance in the Latinate countries of the Middle Ages, but Teresa's ideas were more toward the honour of God and how this honour extended to all of humanity and creation. Williams does deal at some length with the impact of Teresa's knowing her own Jewish lineage on her identity.

In Teresa's autobiography, Williams finds trouble 'both in its composition and its consequences'. The inquisitorial censors took a very long time in editing and approving; Teresa's own issues of suspicion regarding her confessors and others who discounted her visions at best, or thought they were demonic possessions at worst, made her loyalty to the church seem somewhat problematic. Still, according to Williams, the autobiography served its purpose to show a crucial stage in Teresa's spiritual development, one that sets the stage for her later, greater works, 'Interior Castle' and 'The Way of Perfection'.

Williams calls 'The Way of Perfection' Teresa's most 'mischievous book'. She looks with irony and satire in many ways at the world around her, particularly at the ecclesiastical establishment. However, this is couched in terms of love and concern for her fellow humanity in ways that were completely consistent with the orthodox faith (if not always with standard practice). Her absolute devotion to the Eucharist is apparent, and it is somewhat ironic, as Williams points out, that while she writes in disparaging tones about Lutheran theology and views of the sacraments, in fact her theology is very close to Luther's personal sense. 'Anything Teresa writes about the Eucharist is that it is for her the one concrete and contemporary sign of the reality on which everything depends - the desire of God to be with creation, at all costs - and is thus the centre and touchstone of all that is said about Christian life and prayer.'

Teresa's most well known work, 'Interior Castle', develops both ideas of what we do and what God does. Williams entitles one of the sections of his text 'Homecoming', sensing that what Teresa was really longing for in this text, particularly the innermost mansions, is to be united, be at home, and be at rest in God.

Williams explores Teresa's legacy, declaring that, despite modern attempts to recast her image, she was not a feminist, was not a social reformer, and not particularly interested in individual rights of freedom of religion or belief. She was a product of her time, without undue regard for many of the more 'worldly' aspects of concern today. However, in some of her concerns, she does reach into modern situations. While she did not challenge the church's right to have authority, she nonetheless called those in authority in the church 'be clearly answerable to the reality, the incarnational movement of God, that directs her own prayer and action.'

Williams himself is a man of authority of a kind, overseeing a troubled communion whose concept of authority is in the process of change. He clearly resonates with some of the ideas of Teresa, particularly whenever the intersection of God's love and the world's need occurs. Williams writes with grace and clarity, and the combination of Teresa's message and Williams' analysis and presentation produces a wonderful spirit indeed.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente, November 9, 2006

By 

RBB "RBB" (México) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Teresa of Avila (Paperback)

Un texto básico para acercarse a la vida y obra de teresa de Avila.