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This famous and much loved little treatise, On Cleaving to God,
(De Adhaerendo Deo) has always been attributed to Saint Albert the
Great, who lived from about 1200 to 1280, and was one of the most
respected theologians of his time. He was moreover a voluminous
writer in the scholastic tradition, and, amongst other things,
Bishop of Ratisbonne and one of the teachers of Eckhart at Paris
University. The Latin text of which this is a translation is found
in volume 37 of his Opera Omnia published in Paris in 1898.
However almost all modern scholars are agreed that the work could
not have been written by him, at least certainly not in its
present form. It contains many implicit references and quotations
from writers who lived well after Albert the Great. It is quite
clear from the opening words of the treatise that it is in essence
the private anthology of a contemplative or would-be
contemplative, culled from many different sources, and including
thoughts of his own. From the references included, it would seem
to belong, at least in its present form to an unknown writer of
the fifteenth century.
However, it has often been pointed out that the first nine
chapters seem to be of a somewhat different character to the
remaining seven. Indeed most of the directly contemplative and
mystical material in the work is contained in this first half,
while the second section is concerned largely with more general
matters of ordinary Christian piety. It has therefore been
suggested that it is perhaps possible that a later hand has to
some extent reworked and extended an original, shorter text, that
could perhaps even go back to Albert the Great.
Albert, we know, wrote a commentary on the teachings of the famous
St. Dionysius, and this work, particularly in the first nine
chapters is full of �Dionysian� themes. This could indicate that
these chapters at least may belong to Albert the Great, or,
alternatively, it could explain how it came to be attributed to
him. The fact remains, whichever way round, that the work stands
on its own merits as a classic of Western contemplative mysticism
in the Via Negativa tradition. It has indeed been frequently
called a supplement to the Imitation of Christ.
In view of all these considerations, and in view of the fact that
the work has always been attributed to Albert the Great (and all
libraries and catalogues include it under his name), I have felt
it best to leave it attached to his name, though with the above
reservations. After all, Anonymous has dozens of works attributed
to him that were actually written by someone else, so perhaps for
once it is only fair to attribute an anonymous work to an actual
person. Anyone who has ever tried to look for a work by Anonymous
in a big library catalogue will, I feel confident, be grateful to
me!
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