Perspective

St. Teresa of Avila writes this book on assignment from her superiors and addresses it to her sisters in the monastery at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 1577. She is an older sister in the order, and has written other books to serve as instruction to her sisters. This is a book her advisers thought her particularly well-suited to write because of her advanced station and because she was a woman addressing other women. She writes as such, and as a practitioner who has talked with many other practitioners and so offers the perspectives of several different walkers on the path. She is both a faithful servant of God herself and a faithful adherent to the rules of the order, and so communicates her teaching in accordance with both scriptural and monastic standards.

Tone

Teresa's tone is a mix of reverent love for the Object and subject of...