On Loving God
Bernard’s dedication and all fifteen chapters. The publisher’s and translator’s prefaces are excluded. Scripture references remain in the historical text.
Translated by William Harman van Allen (1870–1931).
Caldey Abbey, 1909 · William Harman van Allen’s translation
Contents
- Dedication
- 1. Why we should love God and the measure of that love
- 2. 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
- 3. What greater incentives Christians have, more than the heathen, to love God
- 4. Of those who find comfort in the recollection of God, or are fittest for His love
- 5. Of the Christian's debt of love, how great it is
- 6. A brief summary
- 7. Of love toward God not without reward: and how the hunger of man's heart cannot be satisfied with earthly things
- 8. Of the first degree of love: wherein man loves self for self’s sake
- 9. Of the second and third degrees of love
- 10. Of the fourth degree of love: wherein man does not even love self save for God's sake
- 11. Of the attainment of this perfection of love only at the resurrection
- 12. Of love: out of a letter to the Carthusians
- 13. Of the law of self-will and desire, of slaves and hirelings
- 14. Of the law of the love of sons
- 15. Of the four degrees of love, and of the blessed state of the heavenly fatherland