Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

80 DENNIS J. BILLY
Gratian, but also of his reflection on the meaning of spiritual
friendship with them in his mind. As such, it reminds readers
that their thought processes are influenced by their relationships
with others – and greatly depend on them. When going
through the treatise, they should try to be aware as much as possible
of the various influences on their own thought processes.
The origin of the various questions and concerns that help to
shape one’s convictions should be very helpful in this respect.
3. Aelred is not only the author of the treatise, but also the
principal character in the dialogue. Although it would be nice to
imagine that the two are one and the same, careful reflection
should lead the reader to conclude that they are not. In all probability,
the “Aelred of the dialogue” is a “persona” projected onto
the page by “Aelred the writer.” That is not to say that there
are no continuities between the two; more continuities probably
exist than discontinuities. Still, “Aelred the writer” is making
only a selective representation of himself when he portrays himself
in words for others to see. However small the gap between the
“author” and his “persona,” it is important for readers to keep
the discrepancy in mind as they go through the text. Reading the
dialogue should encourage them to be aware of discrepancies in
their own lives between the people they are and the “personae”
they project for others to see.
4. The dialogue form brings to the fore the dialogical dimension
of spiritual friendship: the closer the friendship, the
more intimate the dialogue. This holds true for one’s relationship
with other human beings – both living and dead – and especially
with Christ. Aelred’s dialogue encourages his readers to
be conscious of the quality of the dialogue that they have with
their friends and also of the quality of their prayer. The depth of
these conversations provides them with a good gauge for determining
the strength of the bonds that tie them. In his dialogue,
Aelred feels free not only to discuss a serious subject with his
friends, but also to root that discussion in his own experience.
By presenting this dialogue to a wider audience, he is inviting
those who read his words to do the same.
5. For Aelred, the doctrine of creation provides his teaching
with a focal point of paradisal innocence. He uses it to show that
all creatures – inanimate, animate, human, and angelic – have
an innate orientation to some kind of companionship and life in