i originally started reading the translation by allison peers and found it rather difficult to follow with teresa's incredibly long run-on sentences. one of the things mirabai starr does is to break these very long sentences into several shorter ones thus rendering interior castle so much more understandable. because starr is so upfront about her spiritual background and that she is neither Catholic nor christian i believe any mature christian grounded in scripture will not have a problem with her translation. she tells the reader in her introduction that she has softened some words. it's no problem to unsoften those same words when reading the text to get a more accurate meaning. i compared a few sections of the peers translation with starr's and found starr's to be incredibly similar except for the changes i've mentioned above. if one is not able to comprehend the meaning of a translation, even if written by a christian, then it really isn't going to benefit the reader. by making this wonderful work of teresa's readable to so many more people i believe starr has done a very beneficial thing.

I have written a comment, but I feel so strongly about this particular translation that I decided to do a review. The purpose of a translator, as I understand it, is to faithfully convey both the meaning and the context of the author's words, ideas, and message. In other words, to "do no harm." Ms. Starr wreaks havoc with Tersa's message, which was obviously difficult enough for her. I agree with other reviewers that by substituting "innocuous" or "politically correct" or words with which Ms Starr feels are uncomfortable for modern readers, she transforms both the meaning and the context of Teresa's message and often digresses into total nonsense. Perhaps she is Jungian, and that is fine; however, Teresa does not use the vocabulary of "unconsciousness" to represent "sin." And the substitution is meaningless, most particularly becuase the unconscious is something of which we are unaware. Teresa stresses the necessity of the awareness of sin. Therefore, the substituion is a sentence such as "Make us alert to our unconsciousness and may God protect us from it" makes no sense on two levels. One: you cannot be alert to something of which you are unaware and secondly, why would you ask God to protect you from something he gave you and something you need (the unconscious), but for other reasons.

It is sad to see this transformation and distortion of meaning of one of the world's great mystics.

If I want to read Ms Starr's spiritual views, I would be pleased to do so in an essay of her own. But I want to read in Teresa's (or St John's)own words (as nearly as a translation will allow) what she has to say. As for me, I prefer the real deal to some so called sanitized version.

This book is useful for people interested in the history of spirituality, centering prayer, or the history of Christian meditation. The work reveals a sensitive spirit and sincerity, yet at a point or two, what may have been problems with mental illness appear.

The thesis develops by way of a first person account of a mythical seven dwellings of the spirit each of which is reached in successive stages after sufficient periods of meditation and good works. The result is progressively closer communion with the Beloved. The translator, a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of New Mexico, renders this 1577 classic in a postmodern voice.

I have wanted to read works of Teresa of Avila for many years. She is quoted by many of my favorite authors. However, after 100 pages, I can go no further in this book. The translator clearly views things differently than the author and she changes words and phrases to fit her own viewpoint. In her introduction she describes these changes so the reader is warned. I've decided that I'd rather read a more accurate interpretation. For starters, it would help if the Christian references to God and Satan were kept. Then as a reader I can "modernize" what I need to in my own head.

This classic, written centuries ago by the great Catholic mystic, St. Teresa of Avila, has been given a fresh, new translation by Mirabei Starr, thus making it far more readable for the modern seeker. St. Teresa's writing style can become somewhat difficult to understand; however, Ms. Starr has rendered it as clear as one could hope for.