Abstract: | ABSTRACTThis article explores themes connected to the spiritual and the material, especially in connection with order and economy, in the thought of the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090/1–1153). It argues that these themes are particularly useful to an analysis of Bernard’s articulation of the challenge of human existence in a fallen world, and the proper role of the Church, its leaders and members, in response to wider concerns for Christian salvation and the material circumstances of twelfth-century Europe. Three treatises provide case studies for this approach, contextualised with discussion of economy in the Christian tradition, and its implications more widely in Bernard’s writing. |