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Article: Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- April 5, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul. By Cathleen Medwick. Knopf 282 pp., $26.00.
AT A TIME when practicing contemplation could get you either the garrote and the stake or a halo and a feast day, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was a mystical sensation. In a church anxious for reforms but at war over who should direct them and how far they should go, Teresa started her own. In a male-dominated culture, she was a woman who read, a writer who meant to publish, and a theological gadfly. In a society anxious about reputation, bloodlines and orthodoxy, Teresa--born to a Jewish converso family--managed to neutralize her detractors and, only 40 years after dying, ascend ...