Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

The first chapter discussing the Third Dwelling opens with Teresa noting that those who have passed through to this place are already on their way to security unless they turn away. She prays and tells God that the only hope is in spending this life absorbed in serving God, or in wishing to die and be taken directly to Him. She begins, getting bogged down along the way in apologizing for what she sees as unworthiness to write on the topic, but finally working her way around to discussing the main occupations of those in the Third Dwelling. The first she discusses is retaining one's awe of God. She points out King David, once a giant of faith, who traded his awe of God for awe of a woman and the consequences even reached his son, Solomon.

The next occupation she...