On Loving God
De Diligendo Deo
Book · 11 chapters · 55 min read · Moderate
On Loving God
De Diligendo Deo
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
About this book
On Loving God is Bernard of Clairvaux's great little treatise on why and how we should love God. Writing in the twelfth century, Bernard answers that we love God because of who He is and all He has given — and he traces the soul's ascent through four degrees of love, from loving self, to loving God for our own sake, to loving God for God's sake, and at last to loving even ourselves for God alone. Tender, searching, and short, it has fed the devotion of Christians for eight hundred years.
You wish me to explain for what reason and in what measure we should love God. I should say that God Himself is the motive of our love to Him, and that the measure of due love is to be without measure. Is this clear enough?
Contents
- 1 Why We Ought to Love God 3 min
- 2 God's Right to Our Love 7 min
- 3 The Christian's Greater Motive to Love 6 min
- 4 Who Finds Comfort in God 6 min
- 5 The Duty to Love God 4 min
- 6 A Summary 2 min
- 7 The Reward of Loving God 9 min
- 8 The First Degree of Love 4 min
- 9 The Second and Third Degrees of Love 2 min
- 10 The Fourth Degree of Love 5 min
- 11 Perfect Love After the Resurrection 7 min
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