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The Medieval Church · 1135–1153
Sermons on the Song of Songs
Sermones super Cantica Canticorum
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
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What it is
Eighty-six sermons that never get past the second chapter, reading the Song as the soul's courtship by the Word and building from it a full account of humility, desire, and the degrees of love.
Why it lasted
The high point of monastic biblical preaching, and the source of the affective devotion that runs through the rest of the Western mystical tradition.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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