Mansions of the Heart

Mansions of the Heart: Exploring the Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth
R. Thomas Ashbrook
Wiley, John & Sons, Inc., 2009

Reviewed by Kevin Book-Satterlee

Teresa of Avila has again grown in recent notoriety, her spirituality influencing numerous Christians. Perhaps most striking is her growing popularity among Evangelicals. A resurgence and return to mystical theology has cracked open Teresa’s writings among other mystical books. So often the spiritual hunger the modern and post-modern generations suffer from is the lack of true spiritual insight – insight that stems from the deep spiritual connection with God and Jesus.

Avila’s book, the Interior Castle also known as The Mansions is a long treatise on prayer and deepening spirituality. While a classic in spiritual writings, it is unedited and follows a number of rabbit-trails. Some of Avila’s best kept spiritual secrets are found while chasing the rabbit, however it makes for a difficult read.
Ashbrook, on the other hand, has borrowed from Avila her spiritual deepening, entering within oneself to find God who is already at the center, and modernized it. He has made a book accessible to the Evangelical reader, who, by in large, has an infantile understanding of the depths of spirituality that Avila enters. Evangelical readers no longer want to be fed by spiritual milk, but rather wish for the deep loving relationship with God. Ashbrook has helped to bring out Avila’s nuances and set them in Western Evangelical contexts.

One of the most important observations that Ashbrook makes is the nature of the Church stuck in the “Third Mansions” stage of Avila’s seven. Here, one has come to understand God and move away from the distracting sin. The Christian has moved further away from worldly things, but is still in the active stage of spirituality, trying constantly to prove oneself to God. The Christian here is distanced from committing many sins, avoiding sinful behavior as best as possible and has a burden to serve the poor. These, of course, are great things, and I only wish that the Church could even reach this mansion. But the third mansion isn’t even half of the journey that Teresa describes.

Ashbrook guides the reader past the third mansions into the fourth through seventh mansions. These are where spiritual meat is found. No longer proving oneself to God, the Christian understands more the heart of God and that God wants an intimate relationship. The Christian still cares for one’s neighbor as is commanded, but no longer does so to gain approval from God or prove to God one’s value. Here one does it out of the love of God.

And it only gets deeper. Ashbrook continues through each of the mansions encouraging Christians to reach deep into the center to see God already on the throne of one’s life. One purpose of the Interior Castle is to demonstrate who really is at the center. One does not need to displace self from the center, but realize that God is already at the center. To know self is to know God at the center. Ashbrook writes an incredibly instructive and readable book to help push Evangelicals deeper in to Teresa’s Interior Castle.