Philosophy of Religion (3) Religious Experience

Philosophy of Religion – (3) Religious Experience >>>MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES<<<

In this infosheet: St. Teresa and Walter Terence Stace St. Teresa of Avila

Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada, born at Avila, Old Castile, 28 March, 1515; died at Alba de Tormes, 4 Oct., 1582.

St. Teresa of Avila was born in 1515 and grew into a flirtatious and rebellious teenager. When she was 16 her father decided to take control of the situation and sent her to a convent. Her life there did not begin well but in time she learned to love it: her relationship with God grew and the covenant was actually less strict than her father. But despite meditating on Christ, she felt that she was getting nowhere. Then she became so dangerously ill that her grave was dug. She recovered but was initially paralysed and never regained her previous health.

After a period in which her religious observances halted, she resumed and on beginning to pray again, she began to have mystical experiences.God began to visit St. Teresa with "intellectual visions and locutions", that is manifestations in which the exterior senses were in no way affected, the things seen and the words heard being directly impressed upon her mind, and giving her wonderful strength in trials, reprimanding her for unfaithfulness, and consoling her in trouble. The more she endeavoured to resist them the more powerfully did God work in her soul.

She became convinced that God was lifting her bodily into the air: she would call on her fellow nuns to help hold her down. She wrote in detail about these experiences, analysing them almost like an academic researcher. She saw the experiences not as God singling her out for something special but God’s way of keeping her disciplined. Her writings became very influential initially in Spain and then throughout Catholic Europe.

The account of her spiritual life contained in the books "Life written by herself" (completed in 1565, an earlier version being lost), "Relations", and "The Interior Castle", form one of the most remarkable spiritual biographies with which only the "Confessions of St. Augustine" can bear comparison.

St. Teresa's position among writers on mystical theology is unique. In all her writings on this subject she deals with her personal experiences, a deep insight which allows her to write vividly on the matter. Mystical States Of Prayer: St. Teresa of Avila (1515- 1582)

There have been many attempts to define prayer into various classifications, the following account is St. Teresa of Avila’s version. St. Teresa was a passionate mystic but also a very methodical and practical woman. It is these qualities that provide us with a classification that is particularly useful as it moves from clearly distinguishable psychological points.

1. The Prayer of Quiet ↓ 2. The Prayer of Union ↓ 3. Ecstasy ↓ 4. Spiritual Marriage

1. The prayer of quiet

 Brought by consistent meditation and/or contemplation.  Does not interfere with other mental functions as later ones do.  The contemplation itself is accompanied by ‘distractions’ – best described as ‘images’ or ‘thoughts’.  The power to make voluntary body movements is not lost, though movement can result in a loss of the state being created by the prayer.

2. The prayer of union  A more intense and emotional experience than the prayer of quiet, one is entering into communion with God.  Here the ‘distractions’ are not reported to occur.  Again, the powers of voluntary movement and sensory perception are not lost.

3. Ecstasy

 Striking bodily movements – can appear like fairly erratic dancing, and can be accompanied by phenomena such as ‘speaking in tongues’.  Complete loss of sensory perception and of the power to make voluntary movements.  Commands from the ‘spiritual superior’ are obeyed, like a hypnotist over his subject.  But ‘ecstasy’ is not a hypnotic trance – it is often a state entered by a person when in a less intense state of contemplation.  It is in this state that visions and revelations can occur.

4. Spiritual marriage

 This state is the ‘ultimate’ state of contemplative prayer  Called ‘spiritual marriage’ because the person feels that they are in a condition of ‘complete wedded bliss’ with God.  St. Teresa of Avila described the feeling as: ‘…sweetness impossible to describe, for which reason it is better to say no more about it.’ Note: While James classified ‘speaking in tongues’ to be an aspect of passivity, for St. Teresa, true passivity is accounted for in this ‘spiritual marriage’ – the sharing in God’s transcendental space.