As the New World’s foremost seventeenth-century literary figure, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz has stimulated the critical interest of generations of literary scholars. Surprisingly, perhaps, theologians have generally overlooked her, despite the omnipresence of religious orthodoxy—albeit at times exceptionally interpreted—in both her world and work. In Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Religion, Art, and Feminism, Pamela Kirk has worked to bridge the gap between the two disciplines by considering the literary dimension of Sor Juana’s so-called religious writings for theologians and illuminating the writer’s religious framework for literary scholars. With a nonspecialized audience in mind, the author portrays Sor Juana not only as an exceptional Catholic woman and feminist but also as a surprising theological figure. The latter, an uncommon appellation for Sor Juana, stems from the author’s examination of the religious components of a number of texts, including such acclaimed works as the Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz and her little-studied devotional exercises.
The opening and closing chapters of this book briefly recount Sor Juana’s life story. Chapter 2 examines the Neptuno alegórico in light of political and divine power. Chapter 3 discusses the nun-writer’s sacramental dramas and accompanying loas, with specific attention given to the role of the Eucharist in the conversion of the indigenous populations. Chapters 4 and 5 are the most insightful, as the author examines Sor Juana’s distinctive interpretation of the Virgin’s agency in her often overlooked devotional texts, Ejercicios de la Encamación and Ofrecimientos de los Dolores, a position more overtly expressed in her villancicos (carols). The nun-writer’s critique of a sermon by the Jesuit Antonio Vieira on Christ’s demonstrations of love, the Carta atenagórica, is the subject of chapter 5. Finally, the last three chapters explore the Catholic framework of the Respuesta, Sor Juana’s apologia, from the model of Augustine’s Confessions to the nun- writer’s Imitatio Christi.
Well informed of contemporary literary criticism on Sor Juana, Kirk situates her analysis within established interpretations, such as the writer’s distinctive woman- centered theology as expressed in her villancicos or her audacious and impeccably argued self-defense of the Respuesta. If there is no groundbreaking work here, there is a new perspective. Kirk’s insight regarding theology and, in particular, her knowledge of Biblical exegesis contribute to existing work on Sor Juana by supplying further evidence to substantiate the nun-writer’s unorthodox Marian devotion, her knowledge of scriptures, and her ability to allusively justify her claim to learn and write despite her sex and calling, often by means of Biblical and Patristic exempla.
Owing to the introductory nature of this book, chapters are subdivided both to introduce the text in question and to furnish a synopsis of its prior critical treatment. As a result, there is little room for the author’s often illuminating inferences. A work of this scope cannot presume to be comprehensive, yet a more detailed account of the accustomed theological practices of seventeenth-century New Spain and the extent to which Sor Juana appropriated or disavowed these would have greatly enriched the volume while at the same time strengthening the fragile bridge between literary criticism and theology.
