Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

StMor 40 (2002) 63-84
DENNIS J. BILLY, C.SS.R
THE HEALING ROLE OF FRIENDSHIP
IN AELRED OF RIEVAULX’S DE SPIRITALI AMICITIA
Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx’s De spiritali amicitia 1
numbers among the great works of Christian literature on
friendship. Composed in a monastic setting over a number of
years and completed sometime before Aelred’s death in 1167, it
offers a comprehensive vision of the nature of Christian friendship
and some very practical advice about how such friendships
should be developed and maintained over time. Using Cicero’s
famous dialogue, De amicitia, 2 for his inspiration and point of
departure and incorporating insights from Scripture, the fathers
of the Church (especially Augustine), and his own experience,
Aelred provides his readers with some very profound insights in-
1 The critical Latin edition Aelred’s De spiritali amicitia [hereafter referred
to as DSA] appears in CCCM 1:279-350. The English translation [hereafter
referred to as SF] comes from AELRED OF RIEVAULX, Spiritual Friendship,
Cistercian Fathers Series, no. 5, trans. Mary Eugenia Laker, with an Introduction
by Douglass Roby (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications,
1977). The treatise has been described as “…probably the most popular of all
the early Cistercian texts.” See BERNARD MCGINN, JOHN MEYENDORFF, and JEAN
LECLERCQ, eds., Christian Spirituality I: Origins to the Twelfth Century (New
York: Crossroad, 1985), 214. For the life of Aelred, see AELRED SQUIRE, Aelred
of Rievaulx: A Study, Cistercian Studies, no. 50 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1981). For critical studies of DSA, see CCCM 1: xii. For a concise
summary of his spirituality and the major theological influences on his
life, see JEAN LECLERCQ, FRANÇOIS VANDENBROUCKE, and LOUIS BOUYER, A History
of Christian Spirituality, vol. 2, trans. The Benedictines of Holme Eden
Abbey (New York: The Seabury Press, 1968), 205-8. See also MARCEL VILLER
et al., eds., Dictionnaire de spiritualité, ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire
(Paris, Beauchesne, 1934-), s. v. “Aelred,” by A. Le Bail.
2 CICERO, De senectute, De amicitia, De divinatione, The Loeb Classical
Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1923; reprint ed. 1979),
100-211.
63