Spiritual Friendship: Learning to Be Friends with God and One Another

Chapter 3 The Advantages and Excellence of Spiritual Friendship (Book 2.1–27)

Chapter Summary What spiritual discipline do you think is most helpful for growing into spiritual maturity? In this chapter, Aelred’s second conversation (Book 2), we discover Aelred’s claim that spiritual friendship is the best spiritual discipline for producing spiritual maturity. The chapter begins with sad news: Aelred’s close friend from the previous conversation, Ivo, died some years previously. This second conversation introduces Walter, a somewhat arrogant and socially awkward man, whom Aelred nevertheless embraces as a spiritual friend (2.1−7). After Walter reads Aelred and Ivo’s earlier conversation, he asks Aelred to explain the advantages of spiritual friendship (2.8−13). Aelred shows a number of advantages, but the most important benefit is that friendship as a spiritual discipline provides a reliable path to growing into spiritual maturity (2.14−15).

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