This study sets out to determine whether Teresa of Ávila's spirituality, especially her treatise, The Interior Castle, can still provide an appropriate guide for the journey to God in the world of the 21st century. This remarkable book offers a particularly unique contribution to Christian literature. To accomplish this goal, a study of the nature of Christian Spirituality is undertaken, followed by a brief history of Christian spirituality. This provides a backdrop for an examination of the historical setting against which the Interior Castle was written. The study then explores the seven mansions of the Interior Castle to gain an understanding of the journey to God and examines some of the most important and recurring themes in the book. The stages and forms of prayer which are central to the Interior Castle are discussed and the mystical experiences of the 'dark night of the spirit' and union with God are analysed. Lastly, the findings are evaluated to ascertain whether Teresa's writings are still relevant in this contemporary era for those embarking upon the journey towards God. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

This study sets out to determine whether Teresa of Ávila's spirituality, especially her treatise, The Interior Castle, can still provide an appropriate guide for the journey to God in the world of the 21st century. This remarkable book offers a particularly unique contribution to Christian literature. To accomplish this goal, a study of the nature of Christian Spirituality is undertaken, followed by a brief history of Christian spirituality. This provides a backdrop for an examination of the historical setting against which the Interior Castle was written. The study then explores the seven mansions of the Interior Castle to gain an understanding of the journey to God and examines some of the most important and recurring themes in the book. The stages and forms of prayer which are central to the Interior Castle are discussed and the mystical experiences of the 'dark night of the spirit' and union with God are analysed. Lastly, the findings are evaluated to ascertain whether Teresa's writings are still relevant in this contemporary era for those embarking upon the journey towards God. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

Châteaux intérieurs, du théâtre de la mémoire aux espaces imaginaires est une thèse composée de trois films, d’une installation vidéo et de deux scénarios. Ces travaux reposent sur des interrogations liées au lieu et à sa mémoire. Des mnémotechniques rhétoriques de l’antiquité aux usages du flashback dans le montage cinématographique, cette recherche traverse les champs de la photographie, des arts plastiques, de la littérature et du cinéma afin d’inventer ses propres usages plastiques de concepts philo- sophiques. Chaque projet développe sa façon propre d’aborder le sujet de la représentation d’un espace fantasmé, imaginé; façons liées au « genre » des propositions, à la place laissée au spectateur et, au cœur même des films, à la multiplicité des subjectivités des personnages. Ainsi, le film Demeure convoque saint Augustin et l’art de la mémoire tandis que Sirènes joue des effets de montage et de réminiscences. Les Passages secrets lie lieux réels et espaces fictionnels par l’installation in situ dans le village de Binic. La déambulation est alors une autre manière de rejouer le trajet discursif de la méthode des loci. Le scénario Sans Perceval, adapté des Vagues de Virginia Woolf, singularise quant à lui une multiplicité de points de vue sur un même temps partagé dans un lieu unique. D’une autre manière, Les Atomes joue avec la figure de la baleine comme lieu symbolique sur lequel achoppent et divergent les imaginaires. Enfin, en utilisant l’idée d’espace intérieur dans la fiction même, le projet des Châteaux intérieurs propose une voie d’actualisation d’anciennes propositions philosophiques et théologiques, autour d’une variation moderne du personnage de sainte Thérèse d’Avila. Ce dernier scénario agrège ainsi plusieurs concepts fréquemment évoqués, repris, mentionnés dans la topique chrétienne, ici distordus, transformés et utilisés dans la fiction même. / The thesis Mind Palaces, from Memory Theatre to Imaginary Spaces is composed of three films, one video installation and two scripts. These works focus on questions of places and their memory. From ancient rhetorical mnemonics to the use of flashbacks in film editing, this study covers the fields of photography, fine arts, literature and film, in order to come up with its own artistic interpretation of philosophical concepts. Each project develops its own way of broaching the representation of a dreamt-up, imagined space; be it relating to the "genre" of proposals, to the role given to the audience, or, at the very heart of the films, to the multi- plicity of subjectivities of the characters. Thus, the film Remains evokes Saint Augustine and the art of memory, whilst Mermaids plays with various editing and reminiscence effects. Secret Passages links real places and fictional spaces through the in situ installation in the village of Binic, and the act of wandering therefore beco- mes another way of replaying the discursive journey in the method of loci. As for the Without Percival script, based on Virginia Woolf's The Waves, it differentiates between multiple points of view on a given moment shared in a single place. In a different way, Atoms plays with the whale as a symbolic place against which imaginations wash up and diverge. Finally, by using the idea of an interior space within the fic- tion itself, the Mind Palaces project provides a way of updating ancient philosophical and theological theories, based on a modern variation of Saint Teresa of Ávila. This last script combines a number of concepts that are frequently alluded to, revisited and mentioned in Christianity, and are here distorted, transformed and used in the fiction itself.