65 CHAPTER FOUR: THE SPIRITUALITY OF SAINT TERESA OF ÁVILA This chapter aims to provide the background necessary to understand Teresa’s doctrine of spiritual growth, starting with some details about her life and works (Section 4.1). We will also consider her doctrine on the stages of spiritual life (Section 4.2) and her understanding of the nature and structure of man in relation to God (Section 4.3). 4.1 TERESA OF ÁVILA AND THE INTERIOR CASTLE – BACKGROUND The Interior Castle is a theological narrative of St. Teresa of Jesus’s life. 1 She had first written an autobiography that had been seized by the Holy Office of the Inquisition. 2 Instructed by her confessors, she proceeded to rewrite her development in the third person, to avoid future suspicions and conflicts with the inquisitors. The outcome is The Interior Castle. To understand the stages of progress as described in this seminal work, some acquaintance with the milestones in Teresa’s life is imperative, which we set out in 4.1.1. Through her works, mainly her autobiography, and testimonies of the time, abundant information is available on Teresa’s life and the context in which she lived. 3 Next, in 4.1.2, we consider all Teresa’s works, and particularly The Interior Castle. A leading Teresian, A. Mas Arrondo, spoke about the hermeneutic key to Teresa’s works, referring to the interrelationship between all her texts and their interpretation under The Interior Castle—her most mature work—written when she better understood her earlier life experiences (1M 2,7, 4M 2,7). 4 In 4.1.2, we will also reflect on Teresa’s influences. Section 4.1.3 is devoted to the religious and socio-historical context in which Teresa lived and worked, as Teresa’s setting is key to the understanding of crucial points about her doctrine and experience. Therefore, we have made an effort to contextualize her works and “the special and unique circumstances within which they were conceived.” 5 With this aim of contextualization in mind, the last two sections on Teresa’s background are dedicated to introducing the Carmelite tradition and its most salient features (4.1.4); and presenting Teresa’s relationship with the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church (4.1.5). 1 Álvarez opines that The Interior Castle “is the best version of the interior Teresian biography” (Tomás Álvarez Fernández, “Santa Teresa de Jesús contemplative,” Ephemerides Carmeliticae, 13, 1962: 11). 2 Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition is also known as the Spanish Inquisition. 3 The following are notable biographies of Teresa of Ávila in English: Marcelle, Auclair, Saint Teresa of Avila, trans. Kathleen Pond (Petersham, Massachusetts: St. Bede Publications 1988); and Victoria Lincoln, Teresa: Woman. A Biography of Teresa of Avila (New York, State University of New York Press, 1984). See also Bernard McGinn, Mysticism in the Golden Age of Spain (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2017), 120-229. 4 Antonio Mas Arrondo, “El Itinerario espiritual en el Castillo Interior” in Las Moradas del Castillo Interior de Santa Teresa De Jesús. Actas del IV Congreso Internacional Teresiano en preparación del V Centenario de su nacimiento (1515-2015). Dir. Fco. Javier Sancho Fermín and Rómulo Cuartas Londoño (Burgos: Monte Carmelo, 2014), 224-28. 5 Peter Tyler, Teresa of Avila: Doctor of the Soul (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013), 60-1.