Toward the Sense of the Image: Reading Images of the Soul with Teresa of Ávila

ABSTRACT This article presents a new reading of the soul and the body according to St. Teresa of Ávila. Highlighting the importance of image making within medieval monasticism and Teresa’s practice of recogimiento (recollection), the article argues that a new approach to the interpretation of mystical texts is required. The experiential and pedagogical intentions behind Teresa’s texts call to a mode of reading that reflects her embodied engagement with textual imagery in recogimiento. By developing a parallel practice of image making as an approach to her texts, the article argues that it is possible to develop a closer reading of her soul. This reading explores the sensoriality of her images to consider how they speak to a soul entangled with the interior of her body. Considering this reciprocity of body and soul, a new understanding of Teresa’s conception of spiritual sensation is presented as a functional continuity between the senses of the body and soul.