Customer Reviews

Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have just finished reading this terrific book. I have been interested in St. Teresa and Spain since age 15 and have even visited Avila. This is absolutely the best book about St. Teresa I have ever read. Ms. Medwick humanizes this heretofore unapproachable saint and we get to know her as she no doubt really was--an extraordinary human being with faults and foilbles like all the rest of us. The narrative was fascinating--I felt like I was actually in 16th century Spain with Teresa and her contemporaries. A treasure. Thank you, Cathleen Medwick!

As a Third Order (Lay) Carmelite, I am pleased to recommend Medwick's book to anyone who wants a balanced account of the spiritual and secular journeys of St. Teresa, who lived during Spain's most storied and colorful century. Teresa is often misunderstood, even caricatured, but Medwick strives to show us a clear picture of this woman who was both extremely simple and wondrously complex. Teresa was well acquainted with the world, yet fell passionately in love with her Lord, who called her to look beyond the world into an eternal relationship with Him. Hers was the ancient and ever-new Carmelite experience. I somewhat expected a kind of sneering irony in tone, but, thankfully, I never encountered it, as Medwick did a scholarly and earnest job throughout. Kudos to her, whose account is well researched and compelling, a real-page turner.

Some reviewers complain this book does not describe Teresa's mysticism. This is true. Perhaps the subtitle is confusing, but the inside jacket flap will tell you there will be little mysticism discussed in the book. For those of you considering this book over the Internet, let me reiterate: this is not a book on mysticism.

That said, this compelling book describes the life of one of Catholicism's most prominent saints. It works as a foil to the saint's own writings. Reading Teresa's works alone tell you little about her world. Lacking context, you cannot hope to understand why she was writing what she wrote, the way she wrote it, and what she was really trying to say (without saying it directly). Medwick does not psychoanalyze Teresa. The book is a rather dry history.

For this reason, I *really* recommend Gillian Ahlgren's "Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity" and Alison Weber's "Teresa of Avila and the Rhetoric of Femininity". These two books more clearly depict the contours of the battles between Teresa and the Church. As a woman mystic, Teresa caused all sorts of problems: women could not teach theology, yet she was a teacher. Following her death, the Church "de-feminized" the saint in a process sad, chilling, and instructive. Unfortunately, these two books are fairly academic - big words, complex sentences, and sometimes impenetrable logic. (A warning to those who avoid those sort of things.)

I have read almost everthing that St. Teresa of Avila wrote. My favorite book is the Interior Castle. While Ms. Medwick is obviously a scholar, I found her 'biography' of St. Teresa to be lifeless and depressing. The author never seems to grasp the essence of St. Teresa's relationship with "His Majesty" and her identification with Christ's suffering. You don't need this book to provide 'revelations' on Teresa's faults and frailties. St. Teresa lays them out for all of us to see in her own writings, and very honestly. Medwick seems to make fun of St. Teresa (sometimes slyly), and I found the book to be hostile to its subject. I would really like to know her motivation in writing this book. It will be the first book I have ever thrown in the trash. And I LOVE books. If you want to read this book, read the works of St. Teresa FIRST. Also, more insight into the transformative powers of St. Teresa's writings can be found in the life and writings of some of her followers, including Edith Stein.

I gave this book five stars because it's intelligent, witty and extremely well-written. A joy to read. The author makes us feel as though we knew Teresa personally. I've read other books about St. Teresa and I've also read Teresa's own works. I was impressed, really in awe. Medwick made me realize what I should have known all along: Teresa was both beautiful and brilliant, and had she been a 20th century woman she would have found many outlets for her boundless energy, enthusiasm and imagination. Living in the circumscribed world of 16th century Spain, however, Teresa's imagination worked against her; although possessing great business acumen, the woman was crazy as a loon. This book, however, is well worth the money and the time and is extremely enjoyable, myth-shattering though it may be. I'll no doubt read it again some day.

One of the hardest things for biographers to do is to convey the personality and essence of their subject while still effectively describing the chronology of the person's life. This book focuses almost entirely on the latter. Teresa was a woman of extraordinary humor and intelligence, one of the great wits of the Church, yet this book seems mostly concerned with cataloguing even the most temporary contacts she had with other people. Clearly the author did a huge amount of research into the Spain of Teresa's day. But it comes across as though she felt compelled to include every last name her research turned up, often without explanation as to who the person was in the larger context of Teresa's life.
The author mentions that she is writing as a non-Catholic. Although that could have been a useful new perspective, and certainly prevents her from fallling into a kind of sentimental hagiography, in this case it means that she doesn't understand the most important thing in Teresa's life. In fact, the author makes occasional minor errors concerning Catholic practice and belief that tend to cast doubt on the accuracy of the whole book. For example, she says more than once that Teresa "said Mass." Even without a moment's research into the saint's life and times, I can assure the reader that Teresa never said Mass in her life. That was (and is) reserved for priests in Catholicism.

If I didn't know better, I would have said after reading this book that Teresa was a querulous, rebellious, somewhat mean-spirited nun. But having read her own work as well as other biographies, I know she was in fact a witty, brilliant, yet humble daughter of the Church who would quite literally have died rather than commit any infidelity to Catholic teaching. There is a habit among some modern biographers to try to impose their own value systems on their subjects. It is as though, having found a person in history they admire enough to write about, they can't bear for that person to hold beliefs the author doesn't approve of. Though Medwick isn't the worst offender, she does miss the boat when it comes to Teresa's beliefs, which, after all, are the core of who she was.

It's remarkable that 500 years after her death, Teresa continues to provoke admiration and castigation, something I think she would have enjoyed, albeit quietly... One thing I relished about this book is the balance the author achieves in relating Teresa the strong reformer and writer and Teresa the Mystic. We are not spared the strange nature of Teresa's mystical life, but neither is it treated in "tabloid" fashion, either. It's important to understand that in her writings, (especially "Interior Castle"), Teresa took great pains to warn people engaged in the mystical life that "supernatural" occurrences should neither be sought or expected and if they do occur to question them deeply and thoroughly. (Teresa's contemporary and friend, John of the Cross, offers the same explicit warning in his writings). Yet, it is troubling to observe so many people try to "explain away" Teresa's mystical experiences as "neurosis" or "insanity". If people paint their faces blue and jump about, scream, weep or faint at a soccer match, we may think it eccentric, but don't necessarily categorize such people as "psychotic"; but if someone expresses enthusiasm and allows the profound depth of their faith and love to express itself, (whether there is something "supernatural" behind it or not), that kind of expression is "crazy". At best, this is intellectual dishonesty. Teresa is solidly a product of her time, with all of its best and worst aspects. Her allure is her ability to transcend those limitations and challenge us to become more than what we are. That alone is enough to make some people apoplectic...

The progress of St. Teresa's soul is glossed over despite the subtitle. The book effectively describes her progress in establishing convents and monasteries against rather formidable political oppostion but does little to illuminate the nature of her mysticsm. In addition the constant introduction of Spanish phrases seems gratuitous at times as does the introduction of new personalities with little or no background on their connection to Teresa. I found myself thumbing back to see if there was a previous reference to an individual several times. Overall I felt less than enthusiastic about the approach here.

I think this is a very valuable and interesting biography. Interesting because Mz Medwick has a scholars touch, she is comfortable with the material and has done much research. Also the author presents the information so that it can help others. Even if the reader is not a believer I think this book will reveal a time and place and personality that will be informative and entertaining, this makes it valuable.

I think that Medwick may have written a book that will manage to completely please very few people who read it. While it talks about the development of her spiritual history as a historical event, it is not a book that focuses on Teresa as mystic visionary. On the other hand, while it contains much historical background and fact, it also elides and skips over much that would have been interesting-- presumably in the interest of making it a quicker read appealing to a broader audience. While I was fine with the direction Medwick chose (there has been enough said about Teresa as mystic) I felt like some sections were frustratingly incomplete and occasionally the treatment of the background was too superficial.

For instance, while a lot was said about her struggles with the church hierarchy, I found that Medwick gave surprisingly few details about the tangle Teresa had with the Inquisition. We know that the threat was hanging over her. We know that she was reported to the Inquisision. We even know the name of her enemy. However, she elides quite a bit of what surely must have been a historically interesting time in the life of Teresa as she actually faced Inquisition scrutiny. In her (successful) effort to make Teresa approachable as person, Medwick at times nearly lifts her out of history. It takes more than interpersonal relationships and anecdote to make a historical biography.

I am sorry to begin the review with criticism. I am sorry because, while I see the flaws with the book, I still feel like Teresa of Avila is a loving and obviously well-researched treatment of a subject which is very difficult to approach in a neutral way. Medwick is to be commended for the effort that she put into it, and the way in which she managed to make readable very alien customs from a very different age. The book is very interesting indeed when she places Teresa in the context of Spain and the Spanish culture. She does a very good job of communicating why Teresa is one of the two patron Saints of Spain.

Medwick talks in her introduction about how long she has been researching this book and her notion of Teresa as a soul in progress. Both points are interesting. If I had to guess, I would think that many of the gaps were unintentional and that Medwick had so much material that it was edited down at a certain point to try to make it more readable for a popular audience. Too bad, whatever happened.

Truthfully, this book is more a three star book, but I am rating it for four stars both because of the fascinating subject matter and because I truly believe that the flaws should not dissuade you from reading the book if you have interest in the Saint. It is still a readable and admirable effort, whatever else.