The Sweetness of God's Grace According to Bernard of Clairvaux - The Bridge Between Augustine and Luther

I have argued in this blog that an Augustinian view of grace, though a minority view, is nevertheless a valid theologoumenon (i.e., a non-heretical dogmatic opinion) for a Catholic Christian to hold, and by "Catholic" here I mean decidedly non-Protestant.  Bernard of Clairvaux is an example of a Catholic theologian, monk and saint who held a view of grace not substantially different from that of Luther.  Linked below is an article in demonstration.

I am currently toying with the proposition that as long as we can appeal to Catholic theologians, monks and saints such as the Augustinian Cistercian Bernard of Clairvaux, we need not claim to be Protestant at all, and that as Anglicans all that is necessary to solve our identity crisis is to identify as Western Catholic Chrisitans.  I know it can be argued that it's more complicated than that, so if someone would like to try to talk me out of that conclusion, I'm all ears.

On a related note, I have been interested in Benedictine spirituality for quite some time, and in Bernard I am finding, for a number of reasons, one Benedictine monk (besides Benedict himself) to whom I can strongly relate. 

The Sweetness of God's Grace According to Bernard of Clairvaux - The Bridge Between Augustine and Luther.

Comments

[cmstan]

I'll save a seat for you next Sunday. Actually, I'm camping this weekend, so a week from Sunday. And I'll save two seats.

[BranonB]

I have been asking myself the same question for about a week now.