St Mary’s Professor Delivers Veale Chair Lecture in Dublin

Prof Peter Tyler, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spirituality at St Mary’s University, Twickenham recently delivered the Veale Chair Professorial Lecture at Milltown Institute, Dublin. The Chair, which was initiated in 2003, is intended to promote excellence in the research of Spirituality. Prof Tyler, who specialises in Saint Teresa of Avila, used a Carmelite theme to mark the 500^th anniversary of the birth of the Saint. The lecture, titled St Teresa of Avila’s Picture of the Soul, highlighted the contribution to the field made by the person in whose memory the Chair was founded, Fr Joseph Veale SJ. Prof Tyler noted Veale’s forensic examination of the state of the Western church and his suggested solution: “The problem is that the language has gone stale. The only language that has any chance of getting through is first-hand language. The trouble with most attempts at religious communication is that they are couched in a language that is tired, in tired images, in achurchy idiom that is remote from life” (Veale, 2003). Prof Tyler suggested that such a fresh “first-hand language” was to be found in the work of Teresa of Avila. Prof Tyler commented, “It was a great honour and privilege to give the lecture and I was delighted to see so many in attendance with a keen interest in teresian spirituality.” The lecture will be published next year in a special edition of the book Milltown Studies.