The Life of Teresa of Jesus

Teresa of Ávila, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, Written by Herself (written c.1565, first printed 1588)

Teresa of Ávila, Carmelite nun and reformer of the order

Plainspoken about her own fear and confusion, and completely unimpressed by a vision that leaves nothing changed.

Catch rate: 70 / 255
Base research: 180
Stat total: 315

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina84

Contend85

Defend82

Popularity64

Total315

Cited for this book

Teresa of Ávila wrote this because her confessor ordered her to. It covers her inner life and the suspicion it drew from holy men who doubted that her visions came from God. Her answer was that a vision is tested by its fruit, not its beauty. In 1970 Rome named her one of the first two women Doctors of the Church.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Rooting Out My Faults	Spirituality	Argument	85	100%	15
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
34	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
40	Rest	Spirituality	Rest	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“I could not believe that Satan, if he wished to deceive me and take me down to hell, would have recourse to means so adverse to his purpose as this, of rooting out my faults, implanting virtues and spiritual strength; for I saw clearly that I had become at once another person through the instrumentality of these visions.”
Teresa of Ávila, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, ch. 28 §19 (trans. David Lewis, 3rd ed. 1904), public domain.public domain

Rooting Out My Faults

SpiritualityArgument · power 85 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe test for a vision that might be delusion or deception: not how vivid it felt, but what it left behind. A false spirit does not root out a fault and plant a virtue in its place — that would work against its own purpose.

Strong against

×2.5The Varieties of Religious Experiencean argument · why?

James studies mystics like her at length and asks what a vision means, psychologically. She is not offering a theory of what it means. She is offering a test for whether it is real — not its intensity, but what it leaves behind.

“In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety.”
Psalm 4:8 (WEB).

Rest

SpiritualityRest · 100% accurate

In the gameBreak off and rest. Stamina is restored in full and any trouble is slept off, but the book is then ASLEEP for a turn (two turns, one time in five) while the other side does as it likes.

What answers it

The specific move or chapter of Scripture that cuts through this one, and why. The number is how much harder it hits than usual — ×4 is four times the normal force.

Take Up and Read×2.5

Teresa writes that when she read how Augustine heard the voice in the garden, it felt as if the Lord had spoken to her (Life 9.9).