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A Worm so Vile : = Christological Humility and the Affirmation of the Self in the Works of Teresa De Jesus.

Record Type:	Language materials, manuscript : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	A Worm so Vile :/
Reminder of title:	Christological Humility and the Affirmation of the Self in the Works of Teresa De Jesus.
Author:	Gismondi, Michael Anthony.
Description:	1 online resource (208 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-04, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International85-04A.
Subject:	Theology. -
Online resource:	click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9798380479974

A Worm so Vile : = Christological Humility and the Affirmation of the Self in the Works of Teresa De Jesus.
Gismondi, Michael Anthony.

A Worm so Vile :Christological Humility and the Affirmation of the Self in the Works of Teresa De Jesus. - 1 online resource (208 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-04, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Chicago, 2023.

Includes bibliographical references

Readers of Santa Teresa de Jesus (1515-1582) are often confounded by her frequent self-disparaging remarks. Following Alison Weber's Rhetoric of Femininity (1990), many critics have regarded these utterances of wretchedness and humility as rhetorical legerdemain, which Teresa employed to navigate the patriarchal atmosphere of the Spanish Inquisition after the Council of Trent. Yet, in doing so, Teresa would have done a disservice to women by reinforcing feminine stereotypes and ideologies of women's subordination. In this view, women's religious writing shares little with a contemporary feminist consciousness; Teresa (and women religious writers like her) failed to confront patriarchal assumptions rather than merely navigate them.Though this dissertation should not be read as a rejection of Weber's seminal work, it is a response to her conclusions. I explore Teresa as a theologian, where her utterances of wretchedness and humility are integral elements of her Christ-centered worldview. Here, Teresa's theological understanding of the terms ruin and humildad becomes paramount.My thesis is that Teresa's humility is Christological and, therefore, affirms the feminine self rather than negates it. As a Christological virtue, Teresa's humility is essential for the self's teleological fulfillment; it is the catalyst for its restoration. It is a supernaturally-endowed certainty of one's spiritual poverty in which the self agrees with God's view of sin. Spiritual poverty, however, culminates in spiritual wealth: the soteriological process that reconstitutes the fallen self, reorients it to God, and restores the agape love relationship for which it was created. In this way, humility leads to the affirmation of the eternal self, whether masculine or feminine.After an introductory chapter, I examine (in chapter 2) Augustine's Christological view of humility as poverty of spirit. I employ Augustine as a heuristic tool, for it is easier to locate Teresa's understanding of Christological humility and agape (or caritas) love within the conceptual landscape he provides. In chapters 3 and 4, I locate Teresa's theology of humility and agape love within this landscape. In chapter 4, I also describe the ethical implications of her theological humility for a Christian society; for Teresa, as for Augustine, one's evidence of a restored relationship with God was an agape love for others, including one's enemies, essentially extending one's ethical obligation universally.In such a reading, the rhetorical effect of Teresa's expressions of wretchedness would result from emphasis rather than exaggeration. But in that case, humility as poverty of spirit allows for subversion, not of Scripture or of the Church, but of interpretations of Scripture that would limit women's public participation; for if every self is spiritually empty before God, the result is an ontological leveling of all humanity. In other words, women cannot have more nothing than men and, therefore, cannot be spiritually inferior. In this way, Teresa wrote a theology sanctioned by the Church to subvert misogynistic dogma within the Church.Furthermore, current research on the role of Christian theology in the development of modern liberalism allows for such a reading. I conclude this dissertation, therefore, (in chapter 5) with a discussion of two ideological consequences of Teresa's Christological humility: namely, 1) an ontological equality that presupposes civil equality and 2) a circle of obligation that is universal rather than local. These two normative assumptions inherent in Christian theology became indispensable to forming the concept of the modern individual and to the evolution of civil and political rights in the secular West. As such, Teresa's writings (though not necessarily Teresa herself) represent a progression of Western thought that steadily undermined ideologies of subordination and made conceptually possible a vision of society established on civic equality.

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2024

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9798380479974Subjects--Topical Terms:

559813
Theology.
Subjects--Index Terms:

HumilityIndex Terms--Genre/Form:

554714
Electronic books.

A Worm so Vile : = Christological Humility and the Affirmation of the Self in the Works of Teresa De Jesus.
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