Of Cleaving to God

Book excerpt: The De adhaerendo Deo, attributed to Saint Albert the Great. Translated by Dr Elisabeth Stopp. The author of this fifteenth-century classic himself calls it a compilation, made for his own use, of various passages connected by their subject matter; he quotes freely from early and contemporary writers, among them [Saint John] Cassian, Saint Bernard, and Saint Thomas Aquinas. The book is in fact a personal anthology of a widely read man, and the passages are bound together by individual comments of great vigour, single-mindedness, and beauty. It has been called a supplement to the Imitation [of Christ], and indeed shares its spirit. From the earlier Blackfriars Publications edition: A great tussle among scholars has as yet left the authorship of this great spiritual classic unsettled. But opinion seems to be coming back to Saint Albert the Great at least as the origin of the work. It has always been so popular that it was soon changed by copyist and commentator. Dr Stopp, however, is not concerned with the authorship so much as with the classic itself, that it may be once again in the hands of many and support them in their Christian life as it has supported so many thousands before. Her new translation makes the classic readable by all.