JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ DE ASBAJE Y RAMIREZ. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648/1651–1695) was a compelling seventeenth-century Mexican scholar and writer whose work deserves a significant place in the history of Christian thought. Scholars who study her religious writings consider her to be the first female theologian of the Americas. Her poetry and dramas offer a theological voice through the medium of literature.

Juana Ramirez de Asbaje y Santillana, the daughter of unwed parents, was born in the town of Nepantla, Mexico, between 1648 and 1651. Her mother was a criolla (American of Spanish descent), and her father was a Spanish military officer. Around the age of thirteen, Juana went to live in the court of the viceroy of New Spain (colonial Mexico) as...