The bibliography on Teresa is immense, with important works in most major languages. An excellent brief survey of recent scholarship on Teresa (and on John of the Cross) is provided by Massimo Marocchi, “Spirituality in the Sixteenth Centuries”, in Catholicism in Early Modern History: A Guide to Research, ed. John W. O’Malley, St. Louis, MI: Center for Reformation Research, 1988, 163-192, esp. 166-169.

There is no outstanding biography of St Teresa. The most satisfactory in English is perhaps Stephen Clissold, St Teresa of Avila, New York: Seabury, 1982; also still of value is Marcelle Auclair, Saint Teresa of Avila, trans. Kathleen Pond, London: Burns Oates, 1953. Among the other better biographies are Tomás Alvarez and Fernando Domingo, Teresa of Avila: A Spiritual Adventure, Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1982; Shirley Du Boulay, Teresa of Avila, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991; and Cathleen Medwick, Teresa of AVila: The Progress of a Soul, New York: Knopf, 1999.

Among the more important studies are Rowan Williams, Teresa of Avila, (Outstanding Christian Thinkers), London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1991; Alison Weber, Teresa of Avila and the Rhetoric of Femininity, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990; Thomas Dubay, Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel, on Prayer, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989; John Welch, Spiritual Pilgrims: Carl Jung and Teresa of Avila, New York: Paulist Press, 1982. E.W. Trueman Dicken, The Crucible of Love: A Study of the Mysticism of St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross, New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963, though overschematic, remains important for the study of both authors. Fr Marie-Eugène’s two classic volumes I Want to See God, and I Am a Daughter of the Church: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality, Notre Dame, IN: Fides, 1953, 1955, provide a systematic synthesis.