Letters of Ascent: Spiritual Direction in the Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux

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.