Women Mystics: Teresa of Avila course
Female Theologians through Christian History
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is one of the most productive and plain-spoken teachers of the Christian mystical tradition. Her concern that all Christians engage a continually deepening relationship with God, allowing God’s self-revelation and invitation to intimacy to unfold in us over the course of a lifetime led her to write multiple treatises on prayer, culminating in The Interior Castle (1577).
We will explore the first four of seven stages in the mystical life as outlined in The Interior Castle, allowing Teresa’s insights to speak to us across time and space.
The webinar leader Gillian Ahlgren is the author of several books, including Enkindling Love: The Legacy of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, Entering Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle: A Reader’s Companion, and Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity.
While male voices have dominated our understanding of Christian theology and history, significant work over the last fifty years has sought out and made available the voices of powerful and important female theologians through the history of Christianity. First and foremost, these voices belong to female mystics.
About the Series
This series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times, looks at five of the most important female mystics from Christianity in chronological order. Each session runs 7-9 PM on a Monday and is led by an expert on the female mystic in question. Each webinar will consist of a lecture and a Q&A session.
The final session is
19 May: Thea Bowman with Manuel Williams
Previous sessions are:
13 January: Hildegard of Bingen, with Lauren Cole
10 February: Clare of Assisi, with Michael Hahn
10 March: Julian of Norwich, with Hannah Lucas
Each session will be recorded and a link to the video provided to everyone registered.
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