Bernard of Clairvaux: Between Cult and History

by Adriaan H. Bredero

"Bredero has produced a book that summarizes his lifelong preoccupation with the greatest saint of the twelfth century . . . The problem that intrigues Bredero . . . is the tension between Bernard the powerful churchman, resented by many contemporaries and by many interpreters still today, and Bernard the monk, master communicator of the most intimate spiritual experiences, beloved by numerous contemporaries, by John Calvin, and by many readers still today . . . A magisterial overview."
John Van Engen in Church History Adriaan H. Bredero first began reading Bernard of Clairvaux in 1944 as a young university student forced into hiding by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Over the past sixty years, Bredero's academic interest in Bernard has branched out to cover topics as diverse as the historical value of the vita prima, Bernard's part in the conflict between Cîteaux and Cluny, and the image of St. Bernard as it has been developed by hagiographers and scholars through the ages. Bernard of Between Cult and History summarizes Bredero's lifelong study of Bernard, the Cistercian monk who was arguably the most influential ecclesiastical figure of the twelfth century and who remains one of the church's most venerated saints.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Ephrem Arcement · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bredero has done an admirable job in sifting through the difficult pages of cult and history in the life of this very complex monk. This work goes a long way in enabling a critical history of the life of Bernard to possibly finally be written. We'll see!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far more about the public image of Bernard than the saint himself (not saying that as a bad thing, of course!) But more than about a guy, it's a study about how said guy has been appropriated by/through history.