All thinkers
Mystic · Early modern
St. Teresa of Ávila
1515–1582 · Carmelite mysticism
Doctor of the Church
Latin
Doctor of the Church, declared 1970 by St. Paul VI (the first woman so named).
Reformer of the Carmelite Order and foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, Teresa mapped the soul's journey in the Interior Castle through seven mansions, from vocal prayer to the spiritual marriage, and in her Life and Way of Perfection taught mental prayer as “nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends.” She insisted on the humanity of Christ, on obedience to confessors and the Church, and on the test of good works.
Why he matters: She is the Church's teacher of prayer: her descriptions of contemplation are the standard against which mystical claims are judged, and her common sense anchors the highest graces in humility, charity and the sacraments.
Reading
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The Interior CastleSt. Teresa of Ávila · The map of prayer; the Fourth Mansions are where most readers find themselves.
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The Book of Her LifeSt. Teresa of Ávila · Chs. 11–22 are a treatise on prayer in their own right.
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The Way of PerfectionSt. Teresa of Ávila · Written for her nuns; the simplest entry.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
Can reason know that God exists?
Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism
Natural theology
How is God related to the world?
Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation
Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose?
Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism
Providence and final causes
How should we speak of God?
Between
Apophatic (negative) way
Cataphatic (analogical) way
How does creation speak of God?
A book of signs and vestiges
Natures studied in their own right
A book of signs and vestiges
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Fideism
Rationalism
Fideism
Where does knowledge begin?
Illumination and innate ideas
Senses and abstraction
Illumination and innate ideas
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
What is theology for?
A wisdom ordered to loving
A science ordered to knowing
A wisdom ordered to loving
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
Between
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you?
Body–soul unity
Dualism
Body–soul unity
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Totally depraved
Totally depraved
Basically good
The body and its desires
Contempt for the flesh
Contempt for the flesh
Desire as its own law
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Rules or character?
Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation
Morality of virtue and beatitude
What is conscience?
Conscience bound to truth
Autonomous conscience
Conscience bound to truth
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
What is heaven's happiness, at its heart?
The will's love and enjoyment of God
The intellect's vision of God
The will's love and enjoyment of God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How are we made right with God?
Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation
Infused, transforming grace
Who can be saved?
Strict exclusivism
Strict exclusivism
Indifferentism
What is salvation for?
Deification
Pardon and escape
Deification
Hell and hope
The many are lost
The many are lost
All will be saved
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
The man Jesus of Nazareth
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Icons and images
Veneration of images
Iconoclasm
Veneration of images
The way of prayer
Discursive meditation
Stillness and the Jesus Prayer
Discursive meditation
The office of Peter
Universal and immediate primacy
Conciliarism
Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
When the Pope speaks
Every word binds
Resist and judge
Every word binds
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
Between
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms
Contemplation or action?
Contemplation: the one thing needful
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Contemplation: the one thing needful