On Loving God, or De diligendo Deo, is a theological treatise in which Bernard of Clairvaux answers Cardinal Haimeric’s request to explain why God should be loved and what measure that love should have. Bernard’s answer is that the measure of love due to God is immeasurable. The work combines dedication, sustained argument, and exhortation, drawing throughout on the Psalms, Paul’s letters, and the Song of Songs.
Bernard begins with God’s claim on human love through creation, divine gifts, and Christian redemption. He then describes four degrees of love: loving oneself for one’s own sake, loving God for personal benefit, loving God for God’s own sake, and finally loving oneself only for God’s sake. Later chapters contrast this love with fear, self-interest, and self-will, presenting charity as willing obedience and locating perfect love at the resurrection.
The treatise was composed approximately between 1132 and 1135 at the request of Cardinal Aimeric, named Haimeric in this edition. Bernard writes as abbot of Clairvaux, a Cistercian abbey founded in 1115 during a period when Cistercian spirituality stressed austerity and strict observance of the Rule of Benedict. The exact place where Bernard composed the work is not established by the recorded evidence.
This edition presents William Harman van Allen’s 1909 English translation, including his translator’s preface and Bernard’s dedication to Haimeric. Van Allen says the text was based chiefly on the Patrologia, with occasional paraphrase for clarity.
