Séminaire EPS ｜ L’amour de Saint-Bernard

-EPS External Security Seminar-

June 2023

The Love of Saint Bernardo

Saint Bernardo in the Divine Comedy was Dante’s last guide in heaven.

Saint Bernardo (1090 – August 20, 1153) was a legendary Cistercian monk of the Middle Ages, who influenced the entire Europe as the abbot of a monastery. As a hermit, his footsteps spread throughout the European continent; He, who abandoned his home to practice, intervened twice in the disputes after the election of the Roman Pope and reconciled the disputes between the feudal states; He received the best classical education possible from that era, but became a mystic. He had a great influence during his lifetime, including facilitating reconciliation between King Louis VII and feudal subjects, formulating regulations for the Knights Templar, and even inciting the Second Crusade to the East. Twenty years after his death, he was officially included in the ranks of the Holy See.

He was the first great mystic of the Middle Ages, and also a leader in the simple life of asceticism and personal spiritual movement. Swedish theologian Yu Geren believes that Saint Bernardo’s theory of love confuses holy love with love, leading to true holy love being concealed and ultimately only secular love. But in Saint Bernardo, this kind of emotion is precisely ambiguous and ambiguous. He believed that there was only one kind of love, but it could have different manifestations. Most importantly, Saint Bernardo believed that love needed to be constantly purified, which was a lifelong task that could hardly be completed.

Jacques Lacan Seminar XX Encore

Saint Bernardo believed that the reward of love is love. The love between lovers is purer than the love that may exist in employment relationships, master slave relationships, or teaching relationships. Because people keep asking their loved ones, do you love me? The expectation of a lover for being loved is to receive the love of the other person. Saint Bernardo believed that this kind of love was pure and named Caritas (Latin Caritas, French Charit é). The reward of love between perfect lovers is love itself. The groom and bride, everything is in common, without distinction. “For this person, they should leave their own parents and attach themselves to their wives, and the two should become one.” (Genesis 2:24). The collection of hymns also mentions: “Forget your nation and your father’s family! Because the king admires your beauty and elegance.” (Psalm 45:11-12) In this kind of love, Saint Bernardo emphasizes kissing, believing it to be a pure expression of love, and the bride’s request for a kiss is precisely out of love. She does not demand freedom like slaves, remuneration like workers, inheritance like children, education like students, she only demands kissing. This requirement is very pure and is a sacred love requirement of the bride. She didn’t make any wishes or plead, but instead made her request directly: “Please ask him to kiss me with the kiss on his mouth.” She seemed to be saying it clearly; “Who else can there be for me in heaven besides you? On earth besides you, there is nothing for me to enjoy.” (Psalm 72:25) In his commentary on the Song of Songs, based on tradition, he describes the relationship between humans and the Holy One as divine marriage. In her love with the divine, the bride finds joy that cannot be experienced in the mortal world, becomes intoxicated with it, and gradually loses herself.

Saint Bernardo also divides this only type of love into four levels: loving oneself for oneself, loving the transcendent for oneself, loving the transcendent for the transcendent, and loving oneself for the transcendent. He emphasized the commandment in the first and second levels: “You should love those who are close to you, as you are yourself,” thus introducing a third party between “yourself” and “those who are close to you: the transcendent. How would psychoanalysis evaluate this kind of “close love” that introduces the “great other”? At the fourth level, what are the similarities and differences between this selfless love that transcends all utilitarian calculations, this love that dissolves oneself, gives up one’s own will, and prioritizes God’s will, and inversion?

Guest: Zheng Yanbo

PhD student in philosophy at the Paris University of Arts and Sciences – School of Advanced Research Practice

Master of Philosophy from Tongji University

Conversator: Wang Runchenxi

Ph.D. in Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry from the University of Paris de Seille

Lacanian personal practice analyst

Conversator: Shi Si

Ph.D. student in psychoanalysis and psychopathology at the University of Paris de Seille

Master of Philosophy from Nanjing University

Time: Thursday, June 15th

20: 00-22:00

Tencent Meeting: 768 555 954

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