Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167)

Pierre-André Burton, OCSO, is abbot of the Cistercian Abbey of Sainte-Marie du Désert. After receiving a degree at the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, he entered Notre-Dame de Scourmont Abbey (Chimay) in 1987; he transferred his stability to Désert in 1999. He is on the editorial board of Cîteaux. His Aelred de Rievaulx (1110–1167): Essai de Biographie Existentielle et Spirituelle appeared in 2010, with a supplement in A Companion to Aelred of Rievaulx (1110–1167), in Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition 76 (Brill, 2017). The two volumes of his Vers l’infini d’une autre lumière, containing several of his articles from Cîteaux and Collectanea Cisterciensia, were published in 2013 by Pain de Cîteaux.Christopher Coski is a professor of French and chair of the Department of Modern Languages at Ohio University, where he teaches early modern French literature and the cultural history of France from the Middle Ages to the Revolution. He is the author of From Barbarism to Universality: Language and Identity in Early Modern France (University of South Carolina Press, 2011). His articles on French Enlightenment philosophies of language and mind have appeared in French Forum, French Review, Dalhousie French Studies, Essays in French Literature, and 1650–1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era. He also serves as an assistant editor for the French Review.

“Aelred was the son of a married priest at a time when that institution was fast disappearing. Aelred’s intellectual development at the count of the Scottish king, his conversion to monastic life in the new and flourishing Cistercian order, and his role as teacher, as monk, and as abbot have given rise to the intense scholarship displayed in this work. Burton builds his profound insight into Aelred’s spirituality on the framework supplied by his study of the stages in Aelred’s life. This work is both historically profound and theologically insightful. Burton’s work is a masterful study of a spiritual giant.”John R. Sommerfeldt, Professor Emeritus, University of Dallas

• ContentsList of Abbreviations   xiTranslator’s Note and Acknowledgments   xiiiGeneral Introduction   1Part I: MethodologyChapter One. Historiography, Methods, and Perspectives   15Part II: The Time of Human and Spiritual Foundations: Aelred the Man (1110–1134)Introduction   48Chapter Two. The Foundation of Rievaulx: The Context of Aelred’s Life   49Chapter Three. Aelred’s Intellectual Development and Life at the Scottish Court   80Chapter Four. Aelred’s Conversion (1134)   109Part III: Aelred’s Instruction and First Responsibilities: Monk and Teacher of the Monastic Way of Life (1134–1143)Introduction   130Chapter Five. Aelred’s Monastic Instruction (1134–1143)   132Chapter Six. Teacher of Humanity; the Mirror of Charity (1142–1143)   154Part IV: The Time of Great Pastoral Responsibilities: Abbot and Pastor (1143–1147, 1147–1154)Introduction: Searching for Unity: Asceticism and Charity by Way of Friendship   266Chapter Seven. Key Events: Foundation of Revesby (1143) and Election at Rievaulx (1147)   268Chapter Eight. Aelred: A Master Architect Building a Community   285Part V: The Time of Spiritual Maturity: Aelred, the Moral Conscience of His Time (1153/54–1167)Introduction: From Babylon to Jerusalem   348Chapter Nine. Aelred’s Social and Political Engagements   352Chapter Ten. Toward a Mystical Theology of History, or the Cosmic Mystery of the Cross of Christ   473Chapter Eleven. General Conclusions. From Divided Man to Unified Being in Christ: Configuring the Self and the World in Christ; Aelred’s Universal Mystical Theology of History   533AppendicesAppendix I. Chronological Chart   554Appendix II. Aelred of Rievaulx’s Works Categorized by Seven Spiritual Paths   557Appendix III. Foundations in the Filiation of Rievaulx   559Appendix IV. Genealogical Chart of Relations between the Anglo-Saxon, Franco-Norman, and Scottish Royal Families   560Selected Bibliography   561IndicesIndex of Scriptural References   584Index of Names   588Index of References to the Works of Aelred and of Walter Daniel   596