Aelred of Rievaulx: Pursuing Perfect Happiness

Front Cover
The Newman Press, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 184 pages
For the medieval Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx, human beings are capable of happiness because human nature is good-but the self-defeating choices of humans have led to their misery. A loving God leads humans to happiness by nudging their free wills toward choosing the good and then, if they respond positively, giving them the power to realize that good. The power, or virtue, which perfects the human intellect is humility, which is not meekness but self-knowledge, gained through introspection and meditation on and through nature and Scripture. The will is perfected through love, without which no human act is good. Love for oneself, for others, and for God are complementary, not competing acts of the will. A special way of loving is firiendship, on which Aelred's teaching is perhaps the most complete and most sophisticated in the history of Christian thought. Perfection is, for Aelred, attainable in this life, since he sees perfection as a process, not a static condition. That condition will be attained in the total fulfillment of the afterlife.
 

Contents

An Introduction to Aelred
1
B THE GROWTH OF AELREDIAN SCHOLARSHIP
5
Adams Wondrous Dignity
10
A THE RATIONAL AND SOCIAL ANIMAL
11
B THE BEAUTIFUL BODY
12
C THE POTENT SOUL
15
Knowing the True and the Good
17
2 The Wills Free Choice
19
D THE PERFECT FRIENDSHIP OF GOD
79
The path of Virtue
81
B RESTORATION
84
1 Contrition
85
3 Purgation
86
C THE FOUR PRINCIPAL VIRTUES
88
D THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUE
92
2 Simplicity
95

3 The Perceiving and Imagining Memory
21
Attachment and Emotion
22
D THE MUTUAL INDWELLING OF BODY AND SOUL
24
Adams All and Restoration
28
A THE EFFECTS OF SIN ON THE SOUL
30
B THE BODY AND THE FLESH
33
C THE GIFT OF HAPPINESS
35
Humility The Perfection of the Intellect
41
B THE RESTORATION OF TRUE VISION
43
THE PATH TO HUMILITY
45
1 Meditation on and Through Nature
47
2 Meditation on and Through Scripture
48
3 Meditation on Oneself
52
4 Meditation on God
53
Love The Perfection of the Will
57
A TRUE AND FALSE LOVE
58
GOOD DEEDS
61
C LOVE FOR ONESELF AND FOR OTHERS
63
D LOVE FOR GOD
65
E THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LOVES
66
F THE FRUITS OF LOVE
68
Friendship the Perfection of Attachment
70
A BECOMING A FRIEND
72
B How TO BE A FRIEND
74
C THE FOUNDATION OF FRIENDSHIP
77
3 Obedience
97
4 Chastity
98
5 Prayer
100
the Happiness of Perfection
102
B THE PERFECTION OF BODY AND SOUL
105
C THE WONDROUS HARMONY OF PERFECTION
108
D THE PERFECTION OF THE COMING LIFE
109
E THE FINAL FULFILLMENT
112
1 The Vision of Truth
113
2 The Unity of Love
114
3 The Everlasting Memory
115
5 The Glorified Body
116
F THE END AND CONSUMMATION IN HAPPINESS
118
IX Contemplation
120
B WHAT CONTEMPLATION IS NOT
123
C THE THIRD VISITATION
128
D THE SABBATH OF SABBATHS
130
E THE FULFILLMENT OF FRIENDSHIP
133
F THE END OF THE JOURNEY
134
G WAS AELRED A CONTEMPLATIVE?
135
Notes
139
Bibliography
171
Index of Persons
181
Index of Topics
183
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

John R. Sommerfeldt, professor of history at the University of Dallas, is the founder of the International Congress on Medieval Studies held each year at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.