Aelred of Rievaulx : pursuing perfect happiness by Sommerfeldt, John R instant download

Aelred of Rievaulx : pursuing perfect happiness by Sommerfeldt, John R instant download

xx, 184 pages : 23 cm, \"The power, or virtue, that 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, love for others, and love for God are complementary, not competing, acts of will. A special way of loving is friendship, 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.\"--Jacket, Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-179) and indexes, An introduction to Aelred -- Adam's wondrous dignity -- Adam's fall and restoration -- Humility : the perfection of the intellect -- Love : the perfection of the will -- Friendship and the perfection of attachment -- The path of virtue -- The happiness of perfection -- Contemplation