Aelred was born in Yorkshire, educated in Durham and then as a young man spent ten years in the court of David, King of Scots. In 1134, Aelred’s life took an abrupt turn when he underwent a conversion and entered the new Cistercian monastery in north Yorkshire where he eventually assumed the role of Abbott. Mere asceticism did not give him inner peace but instead set him in a more relational and emotional direction. Burton describes Aelred as a man in search of “inner unity”; a monk involved in “spiritual combat”; an “instructor of the heart”; and above all, the Church’s “Doctor of Friendship.” He was respectful of the individual and their uniqueness but also was immersed in the formation of a community. Within the community, friendship “must begin with Christ, continue with Christ, and be perfected by Christ.”  A fast-paced biography this is not, but the reader will be rewarded by Burton’s insights into an important life that has much to teach us as a church in turbulent times. Why not read it alongside Aelred’s classic Spiritual Friendship?