Resumen de Teresa of Avila’s "first hand" language of the soul
This paper begins with some remarks made by the Irish Jesuit, Joseph Veale SJ (d. 2002), on the necessity for ‘first hand’ language in contemporary talk about the spiritual life. Taking this as my cue I shall argue that Teresa of Avila’s writings, especially in ‘The Book of the Life’, present us with such ‘first hand’ spiritual language of great contemporary relevance. I shall relate Teresa’s description of the self and contemplation to contemporary debates about mindfulness and the nature of the psyche.
