Teresa of Avila's Autobiography

Authority, Power and the Self in Mid-sixteenth Century Spain

Elena Carrera

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351197052
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Biographies

The Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila (1515-82), author of one of the most acclaimed early modern autobiographies (Vida, 1565), has generated a wealth of literary, historical and theological studies, yet none to date has examined the impact of textual models on Teresa's self-construction. In looking at the issue of the self, Carrera draws on revisions

Chapter 1
The Background of Teresa’s Writing: Spirituality as a Subjective Form of Knowledge

One of the most polemical questions arising from the texts of Teresa of Avila is how to interpret the frequent claim that she owes very little to books—'hartos años estuve yo que leía muchas cosas y no entendía nada de ellas' (Vida 12. 6)—and that all her spiritual knowledge was infused by Christ (10. 9; 14. 8; 18. 8; 19. 14; 39. 8). There is an apparent contradiction between such claims and other remarks made throughout Vida about how much she enjoyed reading good books and what an important role they played in helping her to meditate (4. 7–8; 6. 4; 7. 2, 32. 5). Rather than from books, Teresa derived her knowledge from the spiritual experiences which they encouraged: 'he lástima a los que comienzan con solos libros, que es cosa estraña cuán diferentemente se entiende de lo que después de espirmientado se ve' (Vida 13. 12). The books which appealed to Teresa as a reader and inspired her writing were not scholastic treatises written by theologians and intended for a learned readership, but the devotional books printed in Spanish between 1500 and 1554 which promoted the personal dimension of Christianity among literate people.

In this chapter I will examine some of the most popular devotional texts which circulated in sixteenth-century Spain, placing the emphasis on the experiential form of reading they promoted. The many editions of spiritual works in Spanish during this period are well documented in quantitative terms.¹ In an attempt to complement the existing studies which stress textual sources I will focus on how sixteenth-century Spanish reading subjects were encouraged to transform themselves through internalizing the ideas and methods of learning drawn from devotional books. I will also show how readers like Teresa were encouraged to involve themselves as knowing subjects in their experiential knowledge of God, rather than simply to consider Christian truths as something external to them. Even though trying to discover how devotional texts were understood by their sixteenth-century Spanish readers is as problematic as attempting to explain the meaning of such books by looking at their authors' intentions, one can assume that whatever the particular intentions behind each phrase, these texts shared the common purpose of acting as instruments in bringing people closer to God and to spiritual and moral perfection, and that this is how sixteenth-century devotional readers generally interpreted and used them. One can also assume that devotional books were not read critically, or valued for aesthetic purposes, but rather seen as 'given', and that readers would normally remain unconcerned with a text's history or the circumstances of its writing, and would only take into account the status of their authors as a guarantee of the validity of the texts' ideas.

In examining the potential impact of devotional books on readers like Teresa I have been inspired by Ricoeur, who, in an attempt to counteract the dryness of some contemporary critical thinking, has turned back to the tradition of biblical hermeneutics, arguing that it involved as much explication de texte as self-interpretation, and showing how its methods can be relevant to modern readers: 'beyond the desert of criticism, we wish to be called again'.² He looks at modern critical interpretation in the light of the old tradition of moral exegesis:

I say interpretation is the process by which disclosure of new modes of being—or, if you prefer Wittgenstein to Heidegger, of new forms of life—gives to the subject a new capacity for knowing himself. If the reference of the text is the project of a world, then it is not the reader who primarily projects himself. The reader rather is enlarged in his capacity of self-production by receiving a new mode of being from the text itself.³

Drawing on the correspondences between this mode of reading and that described by Teresa in her texts, I will explore further Ricoeur's idea of mutual interpretation of reader and text at the basis of 'moral exegesis', understood as a process in which 'the meaning of Christ and the meaning of existence mutually decipher each other'.⁴

Lectio Divina as an Experience of Self-transformation

Teresa claims to have been an enthusiastic but rather distracted reader, using books mainly as the starting point for her meditative prayer: 'siempre tengo deseo de tenor tiempo para leer, porque a esto he sido muy aficionada. Leo muy poco porque en tomando el libro me recojo en contentándome, y ansí se va la lición en oración; y es poco, porque tengo muchas ocupaciones.'⁵ This kind of reading, which actively involved the heart and the emotions, had been promoted for centuries through the practice of lectio divina, the slow, careful reading of the Bible, in the Office and privately.

Ricoeur has referred to lectio divina as an example of a mode of interpretation in which the understanding of doctrine is linked to the understanding of one's whole existence:

Medieval hermeneutics pursued the coincidence between the understanding of the faith in the lectio divina and the understanding of reality as a whole divine, human, historical and physical. The hermeneutical task, then, is to broaden the comprehension of the text on the side of doctrine, of practice, of meditation on the mysteries. And consequently it is to equate the understanding of meaning with a total interpretation of existence and of reality in the system of Christianity.⁶

Ricoeur's exposition of how in hermeneutics cognition is inseparable from experience and cultural practices is well argued, but he does not provide examples of what he means by 'on the side of practice', nor does he analyse the significance of meditation on the mysteries in specific social-cultural contexts. At various points in this book I will return to the social-cultural dimension of meditative practices of reading and interpreting the Christian mysteries, paying particular attention to the discourses from Teresa's context which either promoted or were suspicious of meditation as a way of attaining spiritual knowledge. But first I will look closely at a particular tradition of hermeneutics which I call 'affective', using a term normally reserved for the spiritual mode in which this kind of reading is inscribed.⁷

In Ricoeur's exposition of medieval Christian hermeneutics, the reader looks at the letter of Scripture and, through exegesis, interprets its 'hidden' meanings, through a process in which 'explication of texts and exploration of meanings coincide' (p. 53). He argues that the moral meaning of Scripture shows that 'hermeneutics is much more than exegesis in the narrow sense' because its interpreting subject not only understands the mysteries contained in the Book through experience, but is also able to understand himself better by 'deciphering' his life 'in the mirror of the text' (p. 53). But, as I will show in the next few pages, the medieval approach to understanding Scripture did not simply involve intellectual processes of grasping concepts and comparing them with one's view of one's life; it involved the individual's whole existence itself (and not just in conceptual terms) through a performance in which imagination, emotions and the desire and will to know God through love were at play. It was only through the individual's whole involvement in the practice of reading and meditating on Scripture or its derivative texts that his or her existence could be transformed.

The meditative reading of Scripture was practised in the Jewish tradition of experiencing the Torah in community, in a liturgical context of praise, adoration and supplication, which was believed to be as nourishing as milk to the infant and to have purifying effects on its readers, making them fairer people.⁸ Independent of such practices of communal reading, the Old Testament contained numerous passages which elicited heavily emotional experiences in their readers and which were cited in the Christian Office, as well as in devotional Christian writings throughout the centuries, with the aim to create change in their readers. For instance, words such as 'turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, [...] and repenteth him of the evil' (Joel 2: 12–13) were not intended to be read in a detached, objective way, but as a divine truth which required practical application. When incorporating such biblical quotations in their texts, Christian authors were not trying to show learnedness or rhetorical skill, but to encourage readers to experience emotions which would bring them closer to God.⁹

The belief in the spiritual benefits of reading Scripture in a meditative way was also promoted by Origen, who stressed that by linking reading to prayer one could be given Gods's help in understanding divine matters and in rooting out one's worldly tendencies (letter to St Gregory 4).¹⁰ The idea was that one did not only meditate on God's judgement in a discursive way, through a series of sentences, but put those ideas into practice once they had been understood (Origen, In ps. 118. 16). St Basil also stressed that the practice of lectio divina, understood not as an intellectual operation but as a way of tasting, sapor, in prayer, was the best way of obtaining God's help in understanding the words of Scripture (De baplismo 1. 2. 6; In ps, 14. 2) and that it had purifying and strengthening effects 011 the soul moved by desire for God (Ep. 2. 4). St Ambrose and St John Chrysostom stressed that lectio divina should be practised by all Christians at home and not just in the Church or by monks (Ambrose, In ps. 118. 1. 11; John Chrysostom, In Ganesim 6. 2; In Mathacum 5. 1; In Joannem 11. 1).

Reading was in fact seen by the Church as an instrument through which God could change people's lives, a view corroborated by St Antony's decision to leave everything to follow Christ's example when he heard a passage from Matthew being read out (Vita Autonii, 3 and 44), and by St Augustine's account of his own conversion, 'tolle et lege' (Confessions 8. 29).¹¹ In Augustine's view, the text of Scripture was not directed to the mind, but needed to be experienced through the heart: 'my God, how 1 cried to you when I read the Psalms of David, songs of faith, utterances of devotion which allow 110 pride of spirit to enter in! I was but a beginner in authentic love of you' (9. 8). The activity of reading, carried out with an attitude of humility, would stimulate feelings of devotion to God, rather than theoretical speculation.¹² This was helped by recitation aloud, involving the emotions, in a kind of performance which could be private or could become public, as the kind of testimony which Augustine wishes to give to the entire world: 'how I cried out to you in those Psalms, and how they kindled my love for you! I was fired by an enthusiasm to recite them, were it possible, to the entire world in protest against the pride of the human race' (9. 8). He also recounts how the singing and chanting he heard in Ambrose's church in Milan brought him to tears: 'How I wept during your hymns and songs! I was deeply moved by the music of the sweet chants of your Church. The sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart. This caused the feelings of devotion to overflow. Tears ran, and it was good for me to have that experience' (9. 6–7). The value of the scriptural texts of the Psalms, and the devotional hymns and songs derived from them, lay not only in their intrinsic truth but in the way they involved people's senses and emotions.

The writings of St Gregory and St Augustine had a considerable impact in laying the ground for the tradition of 'affective spirituality', which viewed theology as an enjoyable ('tasty') science inspired by the Holy Spirit, rather than a deductive and rational science. St Gregory defended the concept of a 'contemplative understanding' of Scripture and divine matters, an understanding gained through love, which requires faith but goes beyond and enriches it: 'scitis autem, dico, non per fidem, sed per amorem'.¹³ Love, in St Gregory's view, is the best way of approaching spiritual matters and knowing them: 'when we love supracelestial realities, we begin to know what we already love, since love itself is knowledge'.¹⁴ As he suggests in the Moralia, union with the glorified Lord is not the result of striving but is attained through desire and love; it is a taste, a relish, a wisdom, and not a science.¹⁵ He recommends clinging to the love of God, since the power of love is the device which will raise us.

Augustine argued that all people could attain knowledge of God provided they sought it, and that the best way tor this was through the practice of prayer: '"grant me Lord to know and understand" (Ps. 118: 34; 73, 144) [...]. But who calls upon you, when does he not know you? [...] Surely you may be called upon in prayer that you may be known' (Confessions 1. 1). He believed that the text of the Scripture was accessible to everyone, though not everyone was able to interpret its hidden, deeper meaning: 'the authority of the Bible seemed to me to be venerated and more worthy of a holy faith on the ground that it was open to everyone to read, while keeping the dignity of its secret meaning for a profounder interpretation' (6. 5). He himself did not rely on prayer alone for his understanding of Scripture, but resorted to his training in rhetoric and his intellectual skills to find textual analogies between the New and the Old Testaments. This so-called typological or figural hermeneutics read the Old Testament allegorically, as signifying the events which the life, death and Resurrection of Christ would bring to fruition. This method of reading a text against the authority of previous texts was expanded, as Christian readers from the fourth century on drew on the biblical interpretations of Augustine, Jerome and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Note on References
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 The Background of Teresa's Writing: Spirituality as a Subjective Form of Knowledge
• 2 Experience versus Intellect: The 'Will to Knowledge' and the Practice of Recogimiento
• 3 Redefining the Boundaries between Truth and Error (1525-1559)
• 4 Teresa's Criticism of Confessors (1539-1554)
• 5 Practices of the Self: Mortification, Obedience and General Confession (1554-1559)
• 6 Subverting the Structure of Confession: Role Reversals (1560-1565)
• 7 Writing the Self (1562-1565)
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index