ABSTRACT
There is no denying that ve hundred years after her death Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada-St Teresa of Jesus, ‘the wild woman of Avila’— continues to exert a fascination over contemporary minds. The occasion of the anniversary of her death in 2015 enabled a new generation of scholars, spiritual seekers, religious and interested laypeople to reect once again on the legacy of this remarkable woman for a new generation in the ‘post-Christian’ world of the troubled twenty-rst century. Indeed, as we spent the year studying her texts once again it became clear that there was something in Teresa’s language, style and approach that seems peculiarly right for our own times. This was evidenced in the participants at the aca demic colloquium that took place at St Mary’s University, Twickenham during the summer of 2015 whose chapters form the basis of this book. As well as medieval and Teresian experts such as Professors Bernard McGinn and Gillian Ahlgren from the United States we were joined by the notable Anglican scholars Professors Rowan Williams and Sarah Coakley as well as the famed French feminist scholar Professor Julian Kristeva. However, this was not just a purely academic gathering. For the rst time at an academic conference in the United Kingdom we were joined by cloistered sisters of the Carmelite Order that Teresa had founded-given special permission to be with us for the week to share their unique insights into their beloved ‘madre’. The culmination of the week was a mass celebrated by the Carmelite Provincial, Tony Lester OCarm, using the music of Teresa’s contemporary Avilan, Tómas Luis de Victoria and graciously attended by the Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St James, H.E. Frederico Trillo-Figueroa y Martínez-Conde.
