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 Christian love.
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Aelred sketches out the sorts of relationships that people often substitute for friendship but that usually leave us unfulfilled: shallow relationships founded on mutual interest or gain, agreement in vices, the very human longing for acceptance from almost any quarter. But he also gives of himself, frankly sharing his own hopes, desires, and failures in friendships that date back to his earlier life.
Much of this work's charm comes from Aelred's casting it as a dialogue in three books between himself and three of his fellow monks who seek his advice; its rigor lies in Aelred's attempt to blend the best of ancient, pagan writing on friendship with the demanding spiritual discipline commonly associated with his Cistercian order.
There is, however, yet another element that makes Aelred's Spiritual Friendship compelling to contemporary readers: the question of the author's sexual orientation. Many scholars in the last ten years have speculated that Aelred's emphasis on intense, individual friendships was predicated on a homosexual orientation.
These scholars reinforce their case by referring to some of the autobiographical references that are characteristic of Aelred's writing in the Spiritual Friendship and in many of his other treatises. This translation addresses this difficult question in an appendix that surveys the evidence from all Aelred's major writings.
. In addition, this translation includes an introductory essay that surveys Aelred's life and works, as well as earlier traditions of writing on friendship, both pagan and Christian. This is also the first translation of the Spiritual Friendship that is based entirely on the most modern critical edition of the Latin text, that of Dom Anselm Hoste (Turnhout: Brepols, 1971).
