St.Teresa of Avila Biographies

[tinytherese]

Does anyone know of any good biographies of St. Teresa of Avila? I know that her own autobiography is recommended reading, but I'd like to read about the historical context of her life, culture, and analysis of her personality and spirituality.

[Peace]

I wonder if that "Divine intimacy" book might have anything. Had my mind on that for a while but it's pricey.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, tinytherese said:

Does anyone know of any good biographies of St. Teresa of Avila? I know that her own autobiography is recommended reading, but I'd like to read about the historical context of her life, culture, and analysis of her personality and spirituality.

I think it is a quite uncommon type of analysis, but Sr. Ruth Burrows OCD book "Interior Castle Explored" is an interesting unorthodox perspective if nothing else: https://www.amazon.com/Interior-Castle-Explored-Teresas-Teaching/dp/1587680467

Excerpt "Customer Review" - This is a critical appreciation of Interior Castle by this Carmelite sister. As such, it stands in its own right as a re-presentation of the practice of contemplative prayer in the Carmelite tradition. Departing from the older commentaries on the great Teresa of Avila, Burrows was unafraid to critique her writings and in the process clarify for readers the core of what she meant to convey from her contemplative experiences. This is not to disparage the great saint in any way because she was simply making best use of the literary and theological convention of her day to explicate the virtually inexplicable. As such, she wrote within the dualistic framework (spirit-body dichotomy) of her day and being too credulous of her fellow practitioners' prayer experiences, she muddled up some of the important distinctions between real mystical grace, para-psychological phenomena and her own psychic reactions to them. The discussion on the 'light on' and 'light off' phenomena is interesting, if a little dense. The upshot of her discussion is however crystal clear: the real fruit of contemplation has little/nothing to do with these psychic states and experiences (which are induced from our natural psychic resources) but transformation into the image of Christ - that is pure love.  Read on at above link.