Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Critique of a Sermon and Other Letters

Sor Juana’s Respuesta a sor Filotea (1691) is one of her most widely read works and an established text in the history of women’s writing. Less frequently studied is the epistolary exchange to which it responds, particularly Juana’s Crisis sobre un sermón (or Carta atenagórica, 1690), her response to a sermon by the Portuguese Jesuit Antonio Vieira on Christ’s greatest fineza, or demonstration of love. In the Crisis, Sor Juana puts into practice what she would later argue in the Respuesta: that