Imagination or Intellect: Teresa’s Reminder for Our Times

In her journal of divine wisdom, St. Teresa of Ávila instructs her sisters to “not blame the soul for what a weak imagination, human nature and the devil cause.[i] The insightful clerics of 16th-century Spain demanded that she inscribe her understanding of the contemplative life in what later came to be known as The Interior Castle so that her docile Carmelite sisters might draw deeper fruits from the interior gifts that were being offered to them by their Lord. Today, her wisdom can be applied to the way in which we think about and pray with the Church.

Teresa teaches her sisters to observe the distinction between “the mind (or imagination to put it more clearly)” and the intellect. She was confused why “the faculties of [her] soul were occupied and recollected in God while [her] mind on the other hand was distracted.” Many inside the Church recognize this occupation and recollection in God in her sacraments and liturgies. Simultaneously, observable distractions present themselves either in service or in harm to the intellect of the Church.

A strong imagination can be an aid to the intellect. The insights of Cardinal Newman, for example, have aided the Church in deepening her intellectual life through rigorous apologetics and a more nuanced understanding of her doctrine. The vulnerable presentation of Augustine’s past life has enriched the Church’s invitation of prayer, penance and perpetual conversion. The stimulating imagination of Dante has offered the religious and secular world a visual preparation of the afterlife.

On the other hand, Teresa warns of the devastation that can occur from entertaining a weak imagination: “Lord, bring us to the place where these miseries will not taunt us, for they seem to be making fun of the soul.” In just the past century, the Church has wept from the effects of this ridicule. A weak imagination has sourced a passive toleration of liberation theology and other attempts of Marxist infiltration into the stable intellect of the Church. This same imaginative fragility has allowed for liturgies which speak more to the current cultural desire for that which is “relatable” instead of that which transcends. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest, further, that this feebleness of imagination has excused the sexual abuse and subsequent cover-up by those in whom the laity placed their trust.

Teresa lived in a time of significant cultural and religious reformation; she observed the perils of allowing a weak imagination to penetrate the quiet solace of a recollected intellect. Her solution, however, was far from our modern instinct. The activist mindset that permeates our current culture has impacted many of us, including me, to instinctively point the finger at the failures of others, satisfying our desire to impact “change” and fulfilling our societal moral obligations. Teresa knew, though, that the far more impressive drama occurs between the Sacred Heart of Christ and the feeble heart of man. Teresa instructed her sisters to look within themselves for the stains of ignorance, lukewarmness and corruption. Discomfort with the results of this introspective gaze prompted Teresa to imagine Christ as the singular desire of her intellect, and urged her Church to do the same.

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[i] All quotations come from The Fourth Dwelling Places, Chapter 1 of Teresa’s The Interior Castle.

Photo: Ben White, Unsplash / PD-US

Harry Scherer

Harry Scherer

Harry Scherer is from Pittsburgh; he is a current sophomore at Mount St. Mary’s University. In addition to academic responsibilities, he is a Resident Assistant for an awesome group of freshmen, a columnist for the Emmitsburg News-Journal, a member of the Mount Fellows Society and a Knight of Columbus.

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