Teresa

...Tessa Bielecki Victoria Lincoln who died in 1981, spent the last twelve years of her life studying Teresa of Avila Lincoln began her biography with noble intentions "to avoid pious hagiography while narrating the life of a woman of flesh and blood '' She partially achieves this goal But as Professor Ehas Rivers, who edited Lincoln's uncorrected manuscript, admits, the biography at hand, though it may be lauded as an "intuitive reconstruction" of Teresa's life is "less a work of scholarship than a novel-like story " We need to keep this in mind It is hard to crosscheck references, since the author paraphrases most quotations and documents few of her sources — a technique appropriate for a novel but not for authentic biography It is too easy for Lincoln to put words into Teresa's mouth and twist them for her own purposes Under the guise of scholarship, she presents mere speculation, personal opinion, and unfounded conjecture, evidenced in her repeated use of "It seems," "Let me suggest," "One can imagine," "At my own guess," "I suspect," and "I suppose " Lincoln is preoccupied with what she calls Teresa's lies — supposedly told to protect her family, her friends, and her reform "Now she comes to her other childhood love and has to tell one he " Teresa says "I had one brother almost my age " Lincoln responds "Rodngo was not seven-years-old but twelve, but the truth would have raised questions about that dear dreamer who preferred the company of an imaginative little girl to that of boys his age " Lincoln doesn't seem to find seven and twelve close in age, whereas Teresa did — in all innocence...

...Teresa tells us more about her life than most saints, yet Lincoln insinuates a lack of honesty and integrity in her for withholding information about her Jewish ancestry, her sexual experience, etc Our narcissistic culture is obsessed with "true confessions" and "letting it all hang out " This was impossible for Teresa because both her culture and her personality were characterized by discretion and dignity There is a lesson here for our contemporary talk-show society In her eagerness to present Teresa as a woman of flesh and blood, Lincoln writes without spiritual sensitivity and mystical intuition and presents Teresa as merely human This can be helpful, but here it is only a liability, for Teresa can only be properly understood as a woman mystic Although Lincoln does well to explore the psycho-physical dimensions of mystical experience, she reduces mysticism to psychological conflict and psychological conflict to sexual conflict She is obsessed with Teresa's sexual life, claiming that the saint lost her virginity as a teenager and fornicated until she was forty Teresa is no less saintly if these conclusions are correct, but there is inadequate evidence for either of them, despite Teresa's talk of her damaged reputation Yes, throughout her lifetime Teresa was very involved with men who were captivated by her irresistible combination of eros and holiness But every time she refers to "sins," "occasions," or "worldly pastimes," Lincoln reads "sex " Teresa's biggest sin may well have been only foolish prattle (even titillating conversation) in the parlor A conscience as delicate and a soul as flamboyant as hers, called to the heights of divine intimacy, was likely to see this as whonng in the biblical sense In the spint of the Old Testament, Teresa understood even the slightest infidelity to her Divine Bridegroom in sexual terms Lincoln does not seem to understand that the personalities of saints like Teresa are extravagant Their strong passions, extraordinary humility, and sensitivity of conscience sometimes led them to exaggerate their past smfulness Although Lincoln examines Teresa's relationships with men more openly and thoroughly than any other author, she does not go far enough and misses the essential incarnational connection between Teresa's love for earthly men and her Heavenly Bridegroom She seems to criticize Teresa for being "love-prone" when in fact this very quality greatly contributed to her sanctification In the debunking spirit of so many recent biographies of the saints, Lincoln tries to demonstrate Teresa's disobedience, falsely equating obedience with obeisance True lines of obedience were tremendously obscured during Teresa's Carmelite Reform There were bnefs and counterbnefs from Rome, alternating accolades and condemnations from the papal nuncio, the king, the royal council, Carmelite supenors and various bishops With holy danng, Teresa appealed time and again to a higher authority She was Commonweal 652 always heroically obedient and a loyal "daughter of the church " Those unfamiliar with the complexities and intrigues of the Reform may find Lincoln's account cumbersome and confusing It is amusing that Lincoln, so preoccupied with Teresa's sexuality, has her die of throat cancer when other sources say death was due to cancer of the womb No wonder Professor Rivers confesses Lincoln's "residual obscurities and even inaccuracies" and cites the need for scholars who will "later sift and refine" her "discoveries and intuitions " Lincoln's work gives a good portrait of the more problematic aspects of Teresa's life illnesses, family troubles, the infidelities of friends and fellow religious, the lund rumors of her exploits with numerous confessors, the petty jealousies, betrayals, and scandals She pays too little attention to the lighter and equally essential aspects of La Madre's life her love of nature, her dancing with tambourine and castanets, her playfulness and ebullience — the ingenuity and creativity she used to transfigure her sufferings But this leads to the realm of prayer and mysticism, where Lincoln is especially weak Teresa A Woman would have made a better novel than pseudo-biography It may be profitable reading for serious students of St Teresa, but misleading and irrelevant for a wider audience Correspondence (Continued from page 626) theologians The most widely used translation of, The Documents of Vatican II by Abbott-Gallagher (America Press, 1966) not only omitted a key phrase, but substituted something else, as noted by Msgr Eugene Kevane in Creed and Catechetics (footnote, pages 60 and 279) The critical point made by Pope John XXIII should have read as follows It is necessary that this certain and unchangeable doctrine, to which the obedience of faith must be given be studied thoroughly and explained in the way for which our times are calling For the de15 November 1985 653 posit of Faith in itself, namely the truths which form the content of our venerable doctrine, is one thing, and the way in which it is expressed is another thing, but nevertheless with the same meaning and sense " The Latin original for the last critical phrase is eodem tamen sensu eademque sententia According to Msgr Kevane, the latter phrase "binds the mind of the supreme pontiff to the dogmatic definition of Vatican I and the Rule of Faith of the early church '"He goes on to say, In his very act of opening Vatican II and giving it its orientation, (this key phrase) is simply omitted Abbott-Gallagher fails to translate the adjectives certa et immutabihs Classified RATES 700 a word, one time, 660, three times, 630, six times, Classified payable with order, monthly in advance for more than three times, COMMONWEAL, 232 Madison Ave, NYC 10016 Religious Community Considering Religious Life...

...Founded to ransom slaves, our small community of men have grounded our lives and our work of liberation in fraternity, prayer, and the Bible for over 800 years Write Fr Bill Axe, The Trinitarian Friars, P O Box 5719, Baltimore, MD 21208, or call Collect (301) 484-2250 Used Books Permanent Want Catholic theology/ liturgy books of all kinds Send lists or call Erasmus Books, 1027 E Wayne, South Bend, IN 46617, (219) 232-8444 Maritain Notebooks, Jacques Mantain, 312 pages, $13 89 post paid, is a new companion to Raissa's Journal, 400 pages, also $13 89 Magi Books, Inc 33 Buckingham Dr Albany, NY ^2208__________________ Biblical Institute 21st Biblical Institute, Tnnity College, Burlington, VT 05401, June 15-20, 1986 Faculty Donald Senior, Carolyn Osiek, Roland Murphy, Bruce Metzger, Reginald Fuller, Joseph Cunneen Write Sister Minam Ward (certain and unchangeable), referring to the doctrine, the (AbbottGallagher) says this doctrine is to be "studied and expounded through the literary forms of modern thought," concepts not to be found in the original Latin spoken by Pope John XXIII when he opened Vatican II When one pauses to consider how many English-speaking Catholics, especially those in the United States, have imbibed this fictitious "spirit of Vatican II," from what an only be called unscholarly falsification at such key points, the immense measure of the harm already done comes home In 1973, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith went back to this same key sentence when trying to point out the proper way to explain doctrine (Mystenum Ecclesiae ) The classic example of the problem was the Dutch Catechism, a magnificent literary presentation of the faith, but flawed in the doctrines of creation, original sin, the satisfaction offered by Jesus to the Father, the Virgin Birth, the Eucharist, the priesthood, miracles, etc Father Komonchak seems to underplay the doctrinal problems of the Dutch Catechism New expressions of the faith must be compatible with traditional affirmations of the Deposit of Faith and statements of the magistenum LAWRENCE H GRADY The author replies: Mr Grady is correct in noting the disparity between the Latin text read by Pope John and the English translation given in the Abbott-Gallagher edition, but if ti>ere is a "falsification" here, as he, following Msgr Kevane, suggests, the blame for it must be traced to another source than the one he implies The Abbott-Gallagher version is a quite accurate translation of the Italian original which the pope himself wrote What the pope read at the council was a translation made by Vatican Latimsts It is the latter who are responsible for additions and omissions It is a fault in Abbott-Gallagher that they did not indicate which text they were translating' But before Mr Grady and Msgr Kevane see a conspiracy in the .choice of the Italian original, they might note (1) that Pope John told his secretary, "I would like the first Italian draft of this speech to be published also, not because I want to be praised for it but because I want to take responsibility for it, it should be known that it belongs to me from the first to the last word" (Hebblethwaite, Pope John XXIII, p 430), (2) that both Osservatore Romano and Civiltd Cattohca published the pope's original draft and not a fresh Italian translation of the altered Latin text, (3) that when the pope later referred back to this text, he quoted the original Italian, (4) that the Abbott-Gallagher text is the English version which the Vatican itself distributed The differences between the two texts, then, are not evidence of an' 'unscholarly falsification" by some conspiracy of people appealing to a "fictitious 'spirit of Vatican II,' " as Msgr Kevane suggests, but simple fidelity to the text which the pope himself composed Rather than look for a conspiracy here (Hebblethwaite sees one in the Latin translators who, he says, "tampered with and censored" the pope's text'), it might be more fruitful for theologians to discuss which version should have authority, the personal thoughts of the pope himself or the "official" but altered Latin version of his translators But this is too large a question to engage here \ Reading over the single sentence I devoted to it, I fail to see how I "underplay the doctrinal problems of the Dutch Catechism " JOSEPH A KOMONCHAK REVIEWERS Michael wyschogrod is director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Relations of the American Jewish Congress and author of The Body of Faith Judaism as Corporeal Election UNA chaudhuri teaches English and dramatic literature at New York University TESSA bielecki is co-founder and Mother Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute in Crestone, Colorado Commonweal 654...