Bücher von St Bernard Of Clairvaux

In this 11th century text, St Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, gives the reader his insights and advice on Love, describing the four separate kinds of love that seekers experience on their path to Loving God: self-love, selfish love, loving God objectified, and loving one's self in God. This desire for Deity, the Saint asserts, is both a duty, because "He loved us first...miserable sinners, with a love so great and free", and a delight, as God bestows upon those who attain to the fourth stage of Love the blessed state of the Heavenly Fatherland, free from pain, sorrow and despair. St. Bernard's poetic medieval prose is surprisingly accessible, full of intriguing imagery, flashes of humor, and deep wisdom.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153), was a Burgundian abbot, and an important reformer of Benedictine monasticism through the new Cistercian order. He is famous for playing a key role in various councils of his time and also for being a leading advocate for the failed second Crusade. In 1830 he was declared a doctor of the church. This book gives his commentary on King Solomon''s book Canticle of Canticles (written around the 8th century BCE). The source text for this work is "St. Bernard''s sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, Dublin: Browne and Nolan, 1920, by St. Bernard of Clairvaux." To this work have been added illustrations of the author and various figures mentioned in the text.