Wisdom's Missionary: Alfred the Great and the Pursuit of Wisdom in Anglo-Saxon Spirituality
Alfred, King of Wessex (r. 871-899) is commonly studied as a military, political, and educational leader and reformer in Anglo-Saxon England, but not as a religious leader, and his cultural reform program’s translation of Latin works into Old English receives little attention in scholarship on Christian spirituality or medieval English vernacular theology. Such inattention is a symptom of the larger problem that Anglo-Saxon Christianity, particularly with regard to its vernacular literature, is often overlooked in the study of medieval Christian spirituality. This dissertation repositions Alfred as an Anglo-Saxon spiritual authority dedicated to teaching and learning for the purpose of Christian spiritual formation. It interprets two texts from Alfred’s reign: the Vita Ælfredi by Asser, and Alfred’s Old English translation of Gregory the Great’s Cura pastoralis. These works are treated as primary theological sources for examining Alfred’s role as a wisdom seeker and spiritual authority. The Vita Ælfredi intentionally depicts Alfred as a kingly wisdom figure with a lifelong devotion to the study of religious literature. As a hagio-biography, the Vita demonstrates how teaching and wisdom are fundamental to Alfred’s religious experience. Alfred’s orientation to wisdom becomes a central tenet of his personal and vocational life, and the text positions Alfred as a new Solomon for Anglo-Saxon England. Alfred’s prologue to the Cura pastoralis serves as Alfred’s meditation on English Christianity’s sapiential decline, and his Old English translation of the Cura promotes teaching and the practice of wisdom for the restoration of Christian glory. Further, Alfred’s writing and his deployment of Gregory’s ascetical handbook establishes Alfred in the lineage of spiritual leaders responsible for the religious oversight and continued spiritual formation of the Anglo-Saxons. These texts demonstrate that Alfred’s cultural and educational reform functions as a program in spiritual reformation aimed at the restoration of the Anglo-Saxons as a wise Christian people. Furthermore, both Alfred’s Old English translation and original text for the Cura pastoralis serve as primary sources for the study of Anglo-Saxon Christian spirituality and Old English vernacular theology.
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