The life and many afterlives of one of the most enduring mystical testaments ever written The 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.

The works of Spanish nun SAINT TERESA OF AVILA (1515-1582) rank among the most extraordinary mystical writings of Roman Catholicism and among the classics of all religious traditions... and her own life story is considered one of the finest autobiographies in any language. From her carefree childhood through her life as an ascetic Carmelite nun, from her visions of Satan through her worship of God, this is her passionate yet earthy retelling of her struggles with temptation, her work founding and ruling convents, and her devotion to God.Hailed by those seeking spiritual succor as one of the most accessible guides to achieving a closer relationship to God through prayer, this extraordinary book remains a commanding entry to numinous Christianity.

In this classic of Christian mysticism, a Carmelite nun describes her struggles and ultimate union with God. St. Teresa recounts her childhood, spiritual crises, and embrace of the contemplative life.

This book presents a compilation of the greatest works on spiritual development and life by St. Theresa of Avilla. As a reformer of the church doctrines, Theresa rethought the notion of spiritual development and created her own methodic of contemplative life that should lead to spiritual perfection. As a creator of the new order, she created these works to teach her followers of her methods, which consisted of meditation, spiritual quiet, the daily prayer, which should eventually lead to spiritual unity with the Creator. Each of the presented books had a significant impact on the development of Christian thought and belonged to the most important achievements of the Spanish literary heritage. This edition includes: "The Interior Castle" - is a guide to spiritual development through service and prayer. It is one of the leading books in the oeuvre of Saint Therese of Avilla and one of the most famous works in Spanish literature. The book was inspired by Theresa's vision of a soul as a diamond in the shape of a castle with seven mansions. She interpreted this dream as the spiritual journey through seven stages, after which a soul is united with God. "Way of Perfection" - is a spiritual instruction given by Theresa of Avila to the nuns of her new Order. She believed that spiritual perfection could be attained by overcoming four stages of prayer: meditation, quiet, repose of soul, and perfect union with God. According to Theresa, the last stage of spiritual development can often be equated to rapture. "The Life of St. Theresa of Avila" - In this book, she gives a warm and accessible account of her life, from childhood to the conflicts and crises she had, to her decision to enter a prayer life and become a spiritual leader and a passionate reformer of the church doctrines. Here, she talks about her education in sixteenth-century Spain, physical afflictions, and spiritual crises which led to visions and mystical encounters. She also gives lyrical descriptions of the ecstatic feelings she experienced during her raptures. Alongside Don Quixote, this book is a treasure of Spanish prose and one of the most outstanding achievements of the world's literature.

ST. TERESA was born at Avila on Wednesday, March 28, 1515, and baptized on April 4, in the parish church of San Juan, the very day on which the first Mass was celebrated in the new church of the convent of the Incarnation. Her god-father was Vela Nuñez, and the god-mother Doña Maria del Aguila. The name she received in baptism, Teresa, of frequent occurrence in Spain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was common to the families of both her father and mother; for her great-grandmother on the father’s side was Teresa Sanchez, and her grandmother on her mother’s side was Teresa de las Cuevas.

The definitive three-volume edition of St Teresa of Avila's prose and poetry, in Professor E. Allison Peers's justly celebrated translation.

Written by leading scholars from around the world, the articles in this volume range from sin, Sufism and terrorism to theology in the 19th and 20th centuries, Vatican I and II and the virgin birth.