{"id":1345,"date":"2020-04-24T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/towersoffaith.com\/?p=909"},"modified":"2020-04-24T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T11:05:00","slug":"the-way-of-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/the-way-of-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Teresa of Avila"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Way of Perfection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>By The Rev&#8217;d Dr Ayla Lepine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"St  Teressa of Avila, by The Rev&#039;d Dr Ayla Lepine\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EtSYRg7cMHc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In St Teresa of Avila\u2019s&nbsp;<em>The Way of Perfection<\/em>, completed c.1566, she offers wisdom to Carmelite nuns on prayer, spirituality, and living in community. A Doctor of the Church, Teresa\u2019s theological views are bold, clear, and uncompromising. She was a reformer, founding a vast number of religious houses for men and women in the sixteenth century, often under extreme pressure. Meanwhile, her&nbsp;inner life of prayer and her writing are consistently marked by her openness to change and her understanding of the need for constant calibration and adaptation. Her work was determined and strategic, not rigid or cynical. Flexibility was a primary component of what would become her movement\u2019s consistency. This talk will explore Teresa\u2019s approach to love, detachment, and change in&nbsp;<em>The Way<\/em>, connecting these themes with two artworks depicting Teresa\u2019s most intensive encounters with God: Bernini\u2019s&nbsp;<em>St Teresa in Ecstasy<\/em>&nbsp;(1647-52), and Rubens\u2019&nbsp;<em>St Teresa of Avila\u2019s Vision of the Holy Spirit<\/em>&nbsp;(1612-14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towersoffaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screenshot-2020-04-28-at-13.58.37.png?resize=186%2C187&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Rev'd Dr Ayla Lepine\" class=\"wp-image-987\" width=\"186\" height=\"187\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Revd Dr Ayla Lepine&#8217;s<\/strong>&nbsp;research focuses on intersections across theology and the arts. Following her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Yale and the Courtauld, and Lecturer and Visiting Fellow in Art History at the University of Essex. While at theological college in Cambridge, she completed an MPhil in Anglican Studies on the Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in the Church of England. Her publications include articles on monastic architecture, the Hereford Screen, and modern British art, and the book&nbsp;<em>Architecture and Religious Communities: Building the Kingdom<\/em>&nbsp;(Routledge, 2018). She is a contributor to the&nbsp;<em>Visual Commentary on Scripture&nbsp;<\/em>(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thevcs.org\/\">www.thevcs.org<\/a>) and a trustee of the charity Art and Christianity. She is Assistant Curate at Hampstead Parish Church in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towersoffaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/twitter_EVlOKSNWkAAp5Lq-1024x1024.jpg?resize=768%2C768&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-928\" width=\"768\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/twitter_EVlOKSNWkAAp5Lq.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/twitter_EVlOKSNWkAAp5Lq.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/twitter_EVlOKSNWkAAp5Lq.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/twitter_EVlOKSNWkAAp5Lq.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/twitter_EVlOKSNWkAAp5Lq.jpg?resize=676%2C676&amp;ssl=1 676w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/twitter_EVlOKSNWkAAp5Lq.jpg?w=1080&amp;ssl=1 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Way of Perfection By The Rev&#8217;d Dr Ayla Lepine In St Teresa of Avila\u2019s&nbsp;The Way of Perfection, completed c.1566, she offers wisdom to Carmelite nuns on prayer, spirituality, and living in community. A Doctor of the Church, Teresa\u2019s theological views are bold, clear, and uncompromising. She was a reformer, founding a vast number of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/the-way-of-perfection\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;St. Teresa of Avila&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-talks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screenshot-2020-04-20-at-14.25.07.png?fit=658%2C580&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}