A Lesson of Civil Economy by Saint Teresa of Avila in crisis time

The paper aims to analyze what are the points of contact between the teaching of St.Teresa of Jesus and the new strand of Civil Economy, not having to appear eccentric this juxtaposition of the economy, which has prosaically to do with the things of the world, and mysticism. The two fields are closely interdependent starting from the observation that spirituality (like religion) is an '"infrastructure" important for the economic development like State and other institutions and that the "big charismatic" are generally also great social "innovators" and "founders" of new institution (and so forth they become also economic innovators and "enlightened" manager). The mystic St.Teresa of Avila is particularly inclined to a fruitful interaction with economy for three characteristics: indwelling, realism, humanism. From the first characteristic (indwelling) follows that Teresa has provided, through the aspiration to an ascetic and mystical life, many suggestions useful to recognize and overcome the existentialist, human, social, theological, fragilities which are precious to face even the current economic crisis. From the second characteristic (realism) follows that Teresa was an “enlightened” manager founding many convents and drafting a new rule for the efficient management of its monasteries, which has a strong gender imprinting, shaping the reformed organizational context according to a female measure. From the third characteristic (humanism) follows that Teresa was a great reformer in the economic and social life responding in an unconventional key to social conventions of the time. She also discovered the role that relational goods (friendship, love) can play not only in theological field (such as in prayer), but also in social and even economic field, as Civil Economy and Convivialism paradigma teach us. But in the thought of Teresa we may find also elements that we could bring back to the new Economy of generativity, to Ecological Economics, to Gender Economy, all currents of economic thought which are heretical as regards dominant neoclassical economic thought and which can help us to rethinking, after teh economic crisis, a new way of development more sustainable from economic, social and environmental point of view.