Letters of Ascent: Spiritual Direction in the Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux [Paperback]

Spiritual direction involves two willing participants: a director and a person or persons being directed. It happens more in the reality of life rather than in esoteric statements in books worth quoting from generation to generation. To understand Bernard of Clairvaux as a spiritual director, a basic understanding of the real Bernard, set in time and culture, is necessary. Modern readers have very little in common with medieval Europeans. Language, worldview, culture, politics, and economics are foreign to us. Other than an understanding of God, we share with medievals only our human identity. Michael C. Voigts sets in context the spiritual direction St. Bernard offers in his letters by introducing readers to the monk in his twelfth-century European world.

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Bernard in the Twelfth-Century World
Chapter 2: Bernard and the Direction of Souls
Chapter 3: An Introduction to the Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux
Chapter 4: Bernard’s Letters to Monks
Chapter 5: Bernard’s Letters to Abbots
Chapter 6: Bernard’s Letters to Bishops
Chapter 7: Bernard’s Letters to Popes
Chapter 8: Bernard’s Letters to Laity
Chapter 9: Bernard’s Letters as a Methodology for Twelfth-Century Ecclesiastical Reform
Abbreviations for the Works of Bernard of Clairvaux
Bibliography