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The Medieval Church · c. 1126–1141
On Loving God
De Diligendo Deo
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
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What it is
Why God should be loved, and how much: through four degrees, from loving oneself for one's own sake to loving oneself only for God's sake.
Why it lasted
The classic Western treatment of the degrees of love, and Bernard's most compact statement of what the whole monastic enterprise is for.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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