Unity Of Spirit

William of Saint-Thierry (ca. 1080-1148) became abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Thierry in about 1119, holding that office for about sixteen years and writing a large number of works, some for the guidance of the monks of his abbey and others as theological treatises. But during that same time, after meeting Bernard, abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux, he longed to become a Cistercian. He finally satisfied that dream in 1135, when he became a monk at Signy. His final work was the first of the five books that constitute the Vita Prima Sancti Bernardi.

The nine chapters in this book explore William’s thought as represented in his twenty works, ranging from his earliest theological writing through his contribution to the Vita Prima Sancti Bernardi. The contributors to this volume have moved scholarship on William in new directions, ranging from a comparative analysis of Bernard’s and William’s thought through a study of William’s Christology, an analysis of individual works, a new translation of one of William’s little-known works, an examination of sixteenth-century images drawn from the Vita Prima, a study of William’s rhetorical skills, and a recognition of William’s new take on the phrase unitas spiritus.