This practical theological study draws on the theological method of Don S. Browning to implement a mutually critical correlation between the everyday experiences of people with disabilities depicted in six case study narratives and selected texts of two mystical authors, Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila. The study brings to light the harsh everyday reality of living with a physical disability, articulates disability as a practice, and outlines the operative effective history of the United States associated with physical disability. This operative history has long kept the harsh reality of embodied vulnerability hidden from view and thus has contributed to the marginalization of people with disabilities. The critical dialogue between the narratives of persons with disabilities and the selected mystical texts provides a new hermeneutical lens through which to read mystical theology and reveals insights into embodiment and marginalization that bear implications for spirituality studies, disability studies, and practical theology. This dissertation argues that scholars in disability studies neglect embodied vulnerability when they define disability only as a social construction. Chapter One proposes that disability is both a social construction and a biological reality. The next chapter illustrates that people with disabilities still experience existential absurdity and that predominant norms in the United States (however unconscious) continue to try to conceal or avoid the negative effects of embodied difference. The study then analyzes the themes of embodiment and marginalization in the mystical theologies of Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila. Chapter Three reveals that Julian’s relational conception of the Trinity and God’s immanence in the humblest of needs offer ways to establish dignity for people with disabilities. Chapter Four shows that mystical prayer provides impetus for Teresa’s work as a social reformer, which challenges sixteenth century Spain to welcome conversos and value women. The final chapter shows that the mutually critical conversation offers a starting point for building theological constructs of embodied spirituality to respond to the avoidance of embodied vulnerability and the challenges of living with physical disability.

Thesis advisor: André Brouillette / Thesis advisor: Colleen M. Griffith / This thesis studies Celibate Friendship in the Christian Tradition from the perspectives of Aelred of Rievaulx and Teresa of Avila. Both of them taught and modelled celibate friendship in response to their vocation as religious, in their time and space. It is the desire to reclaim authentic Christian living through friendship as lived and taught by Aelred of Rievaulx and Teresa of Avila, that necessitate this study. I realized that Aelred and Teresa's doctrine on spritual friendship is basically Christ-centered. It begins with Christ, proceeds in Christ and ends in Christ. Aelredian and Teresian celibate friendship is essentially love for God and humanity. It is incarnational, communal, apostolic and scripture-based. It teaches authentic way of living the Gospel values of love, unity, justice, peace and joy in the contemporary world. Religious life as a charismatic gift to the Church, is a most appropriate vocation for Christian witnessing through celibate friendship as taught and modeled by Aelred of Rievaulx and Teresa of Avila. To live Aelredian and Teresian sprirituality of celibate friendship in the twenty-first century, religious men and women need to be versatile in knowledge, sustained by on-going formation on the subject matter. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

In this thesis, we sought to understand the use of emotions as a political tool within the context of Spanish History in the 15th century.  Using the theoretical and methodological approach of Emotional History, heavily influenced by Barbara Rosenwein, Piroska Nagy, and Damien Boquet; we go through the royal chronicles written by Diego de Valera and Alonso de Palencia, analyzing the uses of emotions as a way of controlling the narrative of the kingdom.  We see that emotions not only had a complex range of meanings and symbolism attached, but also that these were used to paint the image of monarchs in a brighter or darker light.

Thesis advisor: Pheme Perkins / This study demonstrates how the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7b-8a), a Latin addition and “spurious” text of the New Testament, could proffer valuable meaning-making and intricate sociocultural realia to Christian history, although it has been long neglected in Johannine scholarship. Its first aim is to reconstruct the transmission and reception history of the CJ, starting with the Spanish Latin MSS (the direct evidence) and returning to patristic citations (the indirect evidence). Its second aim is to explore the theological and ecclesiological interpretations of 1 John 5:6-8 from the second through fourth centuries, in which the CJ could have been created. Chapter 1 reviews the history of scholarship on the CJ and the interpretations of 1 John 5 in contemporary Johannine scholarship. Chapter 2 discusses the methodological shift in contemporary text-critical scholarship that enabled the new perspective to appreciate the variant readings. Against the historical background, data, and evidence presented in Chapter 3, in Chapter 4, we reconstruct the transmission history of the CJ text from the seventh through the thirteenth centuries, mainly in the Spanish Latin Bible tradition. The Spanish Vulgate Bible is a mixture of the Old Latin biblical text, particularly in the Catholic Epistles, which also retain variant readings, including the CJ text. The earliest evidence—VL 64 and VL 67—exhibit the transition from North Africa to Visigothic Spain, preserving the seventh-century “Isidorian Renaissance.” The Spanish Latin Bible traditions—Codex Cavensis, Codex Toletanus, and Complutensis primus—all preserve the CJ text while formulating independent recensions. Outside Spain, Théodulf of Orleans, a Visigothic Spaniard, brought a Spanish Vulgate tradition to Charlemagne’s court; thus, Théodulf’s Mesmes Bible (ΘM) preserves the CJ in the textline, with a variant replacing uerbum with filius. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, St. Gall MSS—Cod. Sang 907 (Winithar) and Cod. Sang 83 (Hartmut)—also retain the CJ, along with some Spanish-type paratextual components. In ninth-century Spain and beyond, the Lesionensis group MSS (VL 91, 94, and 95) attest to another endpoint of the CJ’s journey. In addition, VL 95 affirms the date of the inversion of in terra and in caelo to the twelfth or thirteenth century (together with the second hand of VL 54). The CJ text, therefore, survived in the soil of Spanish cultural orbit, where the Vulgate text (mixed with the Old Latin readings) was received and survived. Simultaneously, the study reveals high levels of textual circulation and interregional cultural communication in North Africa, Spain, Gaul, and beyond. In Chapter 5, we examine the indirect evidence, focusing on Priscillian of Avila. While we rehabilitate Priscillian’s citation of the CJ, the earliest and most extended surviving indirect witness, as one recension in Spain, our examination of the indirect evidence also shows that there are at least three receptions of the CJ—(1) the terrestrial witness (in terra), a simple addition to the three witnesses in v.7a; (2) the celestial witness (in caelo), a further addition in v.8a, pointing to the trinitarian “heavenly witnesses,” and (3) a combination, which is the CJ properly so-called and eventually attested in the Vulgate. Finally, in Chapter 6, we explore the patristic interpretations of 1 John 5:6-8 (and John 19:34), which are laden with sacramental and ecclesiological connotations. In the second and third centuries, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ps.-Cyprian expounded the baptismal interpretation with 1 John 5:6-8, and in the fourth century, Ambrose and Augustine crystalized trinitarian interpretations. Ambrose emphasized the divinity of the Spirit as the heavenly efficacy of the baptismal sacrament, which differentiated the invisible and visible realia of the sacraments. Augustine further developed his trinitarian interpretation of 1 John 5:6-8, grounded in incarnational theology of the Johannine turn; “the three” (tres) thus became the “signs” (signa) of the divine mystery of the Trinity. The CJ text could be another attempt to elucidate the crux interpretationis of 1 John 5:6-8. Exploring the patristic interpretations of these passages revealed the significance of the “lived life” of early Christian communities, which contemporary scholarship has somewhat devalued. This study thus reveals a forgotten sociocultural and religious history along with a journey of the CJ text. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

My dissertation gives the first analysis of misery in the thought of Aquinas and Teresa of Ávila, providing new insight into their ideas of happiness through means of contrast. I use the terms “misery” and “happiness” in a traditional sense to indicate life lived poorly or well, respectively, and I investigate these notions in Aquinas’ and Teresa’s principal texts, especially the Summa Theologiae and The Interior Castle. Both thinkers identify misery as a privation of God: a lack of the share in God’s goodness that one ought to have. Both see the escape from misery as a process of perfecting the soul’s faculties of intellect and will to unite one to God. For Aquinas, happiness is essentially an intellectual perfection: knowledge of God. Conversely, misery is an intellectual defect: lack of the knowledge of God that one ought to have. Moreover, Aquinas so analyzes “ought” that misery is a lack of what is naturally desired. Perfect happiness comes with the full understanding of God that one can only attain in heaven, but a middle ground exists between perfect happiness and misery. Even in this life, one can attain “imperfect happiness,” and the analysis of misery helps to clarify this obscure notion. The imperfectly happy have not acquired their consummate perfection, but understand as much about God as nature presently compels them to desire to know. A right will is both necessary and sufficient for escaping misery and obtaining happiness. The will depends on the intellect in such a way that it cannot desire correctly unless the intellect understands correctly. Moreover, sin colors one’s perception of reality, so that evil desire in the will causes error and ignorance in the intellect. Thus, one escapes misery if and only if one chooses to love God as one’s ultimate end. For Teresa, happiness is the union with God through knowledge and love for which the soul was made, and misery is the lack of this union. The soul escapes misery by developing a relationship with God in contemplative prayer, and Teresa illustrates happiness and misery through the titular metaphor of The Interior Castle. Notably, happiness requires that one’s union with God become perfectly secure, and I identify an intellectualist strain in Teresa that implies that the will cannot become perfectly committed to God unless the intellect can become perfectly firm in its certainty that God is the sole good. The quest for certainty is difficult, since like Descartes who will follow her, Teresa posits the existence of a deceiving demon with considerable influence over all the soul’s powers. Against that threat, Teresa claims to find certainty through mystical experience. God is Truth, containing and grounding all other truths. In the “spiritual marriage,” the soul sees God’s Triune nature as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, really three distinct persons yet one substance. The directness of this vision provides a certainty which no deception can overcome.

[pt] Os expoentes de Lyapunov são uma ferramenta bastante utilizada quando busca-se entender o comportamento de sistemas dinâmicos, em particular de cociclos lineares. De fato, concentramo-nos no expoente maximal, pois este determina o comportamento geral do sistema, de modo que sua positividade pode ser um indicativo de que estamos lidando com um sistema caótico. Nesse sentido estudamos um teorema provado por Michael Herman, que fornece uma cota inferior para o expoente de Lyapunov maximal de uma classe de cociclos lineares definidos por rotações no círculo. A prova deste resultado utiliza um processo de complexificação do cociclo e um argumento de subharmonicidade. Surpreendentemente, essa cota inferior é na verdade uma identidade, o que foi provado posteriormente por Avila e Bochi. Como será mostrado nesta dissertação, o argumento para obter a identidade depende crucialmente da harmonicidade, e não da mera subharmonicidade de certas funções associadas às iterações do cociclo. / [en] Lyapunov exponents are a widely used tool when trying to understand the behavior of dynamical systems in general, and in particular that of linear cocycles. We focus on the maximal exponent, as it determines the general behavior of the system, in that its positivity can be an indication that we are dealing with a chaotic system. In this sense, we study a theorem obtained by Michael Herman, providing a lower bound on the maximal Lyapunov exponent of a class of linear cocycles defined by circle rotations. The proof of this result employs the complexification of the cocycle and an argument based on subharmonicity. Surprisingly, this lower bound is in fact an identity, which was proven later by Avila and Bochi. As it will be shown in this dissertation, the argument for obtaining this identity depends crucially on the harmonicity, as opposed to the mere subharmonicity of certain functions associated with the iterates of the cocycle.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-09-13T11:40:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Joyce de Freitas Ramos.pdf: 1243002 bytes, checksum: 4820e515279a2834fa1bb912b5eb4f16 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-13T11:40:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Joyce de Freitas Ramos.pdf: 1243002 bytes, checksum: 4820e515279a2834fa1bb912b5eb4f16 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-30 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Having the objective of trying to find ways for women to express their selves within the Spanish convents in the XVIth century through the contact with the Mystical Theology, the present work will concentrate on the analyses of sources written by Saint Teresa of Avila. The vast textual production, which guaranteed her the title first Doctor for the Catholic Church, and her reformative movement within the religious life made her a model for female sanctity in her own time and for the following centuries. The study of her work may lead us to realize her place of action and her condition of reader, reformer and writer, all of which are characteristics that seemed unreachable to a woman in Modern Spain / Com o objetivo de tentar encontrar formas de expressão feminina dentro dos conventos espanhóis do século XVI através do contato com a Teologia Mística, o seguinte trabalho se debruçará na análise das fontes escritas por Santa Teresa de Ávila. A ampla produção textual, que lhe garantiu o título de primeira Doutora da Igreja Católica, e seu movimento reformador dentro da vida religiosa a transformaram em um modelo de santidade feminina para sua época e para os séculos que a seguiram. O estudo de sua obra pode nos levar a perceber seu lugar de ação e sua condição de leitora, reformadora e escritora, todas características que pareceriam inalcançáveis para uma mulher na Espanha Moderna

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:39:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1319689 bytes, checksum: 8c2b50e7c505e792eb6906ac007190d0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This research focuses on the poetic work of Teresa of Ávila, Spanish writer and poet who lived in the sixteenth century and became known as the founder of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. The corpus chosen for analysis is composed of the following poems: Mi Amado es para mí, Traspasada and Buscate en mí, taken from the collection of her poetry published in Complete Works (1974) to be analyzed in the light of Mysticism and Eroticism also considering the traces of female authorship present in those texts. The reading of her selected poetry demonstrates that there is in them a strong presence of elements of the Western Christian Mysticism of the Middle Ages, as well as the speech marks of female authorship and related mystical eroticism through aesthetic choices that anticipate the Baroque characteristics. For that determination, the theoretical support was sought mainly in the following works: El fenómeno místico: estudio comparado (2009), written by Juan Martin Velasco, The Eroticism (2004) by Georges Bataille, Mystical Theology: The Science of love (1996) by William Johnston, Estudos sobre o Barroco (2002) by Helmut Hatzfeld, as well as several studies on female authorship in the mystical writings of the Middle Ages with the objective of identifying common elements in the poems analyzed. / Esta pesquisa está centrada na obra poética de Teresa d Ávila, escritora e poetisa espanhola que viveu no século XVI e se tornou conhecida por ser a fundadora da Ordem das Carmelitas Descalças. O corpus escolhido para análise é composto pelos poemas Mi Amado para mí, Traspasada e Buscate en mí, retirados da coletânea de poesia publicada em suas Obras Completas (1974) a fim de serem analisados à luz da Mística e do Erotismo, considerando também as marcas da autoria feminina presentes nos referidos textos. A leitura dos poemas escolhidos demonstra que neles há uma forte presença de elementos da Mística ocidental cristã própria da Idade Média, bem como das marcas do discurso de autoria feminina e de características relacionadas ao erotismo místico por meio de escolhas estéticas que antecipam o Barroco. Para a referida constatação, foi buscado o apoio teórico, principalmente, nos trabalhos: El fenómeno místico: estudio comparado (2009), escrito por Juan Martin Velasco, O Erotismo (2004) de Georges Bataille, Mystical Theology: the Science of love(1996) de William Johnston, Estudos sobre o Barroco (2002) de Helmut Hatzfeld, bem como diversos estudos sobre autoria feminina nos escritos místicos da Idade Média com o objetivo de apontar elementos comuns nos poemas teresianos analisados.

Cotutelle de thèse: PhD en philosophie par la Faculté de Philosophie de l’Université de Strasbourg et PhD en sciences des religions par l'Institut d’études religieuses de l'Université de Montréal. / Le réel, compris comme un impossible à signifier, apparait comme le point sur lequel philosophes, théologiens et psychanalystes achoppent quand ils lisent le récit d'une expérience mystique. En fait, la mystique se présente pour eux comme un réel, soit un impossible à maitriser par le langage. Pourtant les écrits de Thérèse d’Avila montrent que l’expérience mystique, au contraire, a un lien étroit avec le réel. Pour cerner ce qui, du réel, est en jeu dans ce qui, pour un mystique, constitue une expérience spirituelle singulière, nous nous appuierons d'une part sur le travail de Freud autour de la notion de trace et sur la façon dont Lacan a développé le concept de réel. D'autre part, il s'agira de mettre en perspective une théologie mystique chez Thérèse. Cette double approche marquée par l’attention à ce qui fait frontière entre le sens et le hors sens permettra d'aborder l’écriture comme un support matériel nécessaire pour reconnaitre les traces de l’émergence du réel. Cela nous permettra de postuler que le réel peut être lu comme une condition de possibilité d’existence de l’expérience mystique. À cet effet, Thérèse de Jésus sera convoquée à la fois comme mystique, soit comme celle qui a vécu une expérience avec Dieu, et à la fois comme théologienne, soit comme celle qui a réfléchi à cette expérience. Pour être en mesure de lire cette expérience vécue comme un impossible à représenter, nous nous servirons de la manière dont Freud et Lacan ont développé un savoir autour de ce réel, lu comme Dieu dans la mystique. Mais, là où Freud considérait le spirituel comme relevant du pulsionnel, Lacan définit l’expérience mystique à partir du champ de la jouissance, en l’inscrivant dans le champ de la logique signifiante dont le réel est un produit. Cela nous amènera à réinterpréter la trace inscrite dans le corps comme une dimension du réel qui résiste à la symbolisation du corps parlant. Ce rapport entre le signifiant et le réel permet de reconnaitre les savoirs psychanalytiques et mystiques comme un savoir-faire avec ce qui relève de l’impossible. Dans le cas de Thérèse, ce réel prend la forme du Dieu-Trinitaire comme vérité. Cependant, indiquer cette vérité ne lui suffit pas, car ce qui est en jeu dans cette expérience est vivre l’union avec ce Dieu qui ex-siste au langage. Le savoir-faire avec le réel en devient une conséquence possible, voire une grâce. / The real, understood as something impossible to signify, appears to be the point at which philosophers, theologians, and psychoanalysts stumble when they read an account of mystical experience. In fact, mysticism is presented as an impossible real to master through language. Yet, the writing of Teresa of Avila shows that mystical experience, on the contrary, has a close link with the real. To illuminate what of the real is at stake in what, for a mystic, constitutes a singular spiritual experience, we can look to Freud's work on the notion of trace and to the way in which Lacan developed the concept of the real to gain perspective of the mystical theology of Teresa. This dual approach, marked by attention to the boundary between the tangible and the intangible, makes it possible to consider these works as necessary material support for discerning emergent traces of the real. This allows us to postulate that real can be read as a condition of the possibility for the existence of the mystical experience. Thus, Teresa de Avila will be invoked as both a mystic, one who has lived an experience with God, and as a theologian, one who has also pondered this experience. To be able to understand this lived experience as impossible to represent, we can use the way Freud and Lacan discussions concerning the real, read here as God in mysticism. Yet, Freud considered the spiritual to be part of impulse, whereas Lacan defines the mystical experience in the field of jouissance, inscribing it in the field of signifying logic, of which the real is a product. This leads us to reinterpret the trace inscribed in the body as a dimension of real that resists the symbolic representation of the subject. This relationship between the signifier and the real makes it possible to recognize psychoanalytical and mystical knowledge as a kind of “know-how” of what is impossible. In the case of Teresa of Avila, the real takes the form of the Trinity as truth. To indicate this truth, however, is not enough for her, for what is at stake in this experience is living in union with God who ex-sist in language. In this case, the “know-how” with the real become possibly consequential, even a blessing.

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)