BROADCASTS.com

On Loving God

by Saint BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX (1090 - 1153)

Why we should love God, and the measure of that love

On Loving God is one of the best-known and most influential works of Medieval Christian mysticism. Written at the request of one of the cardinals of Rome, it describes the four “levels” of love for God, and puts Christian devotion in the context of God’s love for mankind. Summary by Kirsten Ferreri.

---

Listen next episodes of On Loving God:
A brief summary , Of love: out of a letter to the Carthusians , Of love toward God not without reward: and how the hunger of man's heart cannot be satisfied with earthly things , Of the attainment of this perfection of love only at the resurrection , Of the Christian's debt of love, how great it is , Of the first degree of love: wherein man loves God for self's sake , Of the four degrees of love, and of the blessed state of the heavenly fatherland , Of the fourth degree of love: wherein man does not even love self save for God's sake , Of the law of self-will and desire, of slaves and hirelings , Of the law of the love of sons , Of the second and third degrees of love , Of those who find comfort in there collection of God, or are fittest for His love , On loving God. How much God deserves love from man in recognition of His gifts, both material and spiritual: and how these gifts should be cherished without neglect of the Giver , What greater incentives Christians have, more than the heathen, to love God