Introduction Teresa of Avila calls for our consideration on several counts: Her writings are increasingly popular amongst unconverted but professing Protestants who find her 'mystical spirituality' attractive in their own 'pursuit of God.' We are thus alerted to a dangerous 'enemy within the gates.' She is revered by Romanists as 'a quintessential Catholic', 'a revolutionary mystic', 'a saint and doctor of the Church', and a co-patron of Spain. This gives us an inkling of the influence she wields over Roman Catholic hearts. Her works, 'long seen as merely devotional treatises . . . are now being mined more seriously for...
