Aelred of Rievaulx's Spiritual friendship

Aelred of Rievaulx, Saint

Aelred of Rievaulx's Spiritual Friendship is one of the most important treatises on friendship to emerge from the middle ages. Working within a tradition that dates back to Cicero and other classical authors, Aelred (ca. 1110-67) discusses friendship from the perspective of Christian theology. Although he succeeds in advancing beyond Cicero's pagan concept of friendship to a thoroughly Christian formulation of the idea, this treatise is no dry, theological text. Born of its author's lifelong search for permanence and depth in his relationships with others, Aelred's essay also deals with many of the practical issues of friendship: how friendships begin, how they are nurtured, how preserved, the dangers to which friendships sometimes fall prey. Aelred is especially insistent on the necessity of strong, "spiritual" friendships between individuals within the general context of universal...

See on librarything