The Image and Likeness of God in Bernard of Clairaux's Free Choice and Grace

We are made in the image and likeness of God. Bernard of Clairvaux, the versatile troubadour of Christian love, is no naive romantic. He understands that a series of moral changes must precede any exercise of this love. For him, the seat of love is the faculty of the human will (the Image). On the other hand, the uninhibited action of free choice (the Likeness) constitutes the perfection of the faculty. The Image, because of sin and consequent misery, has lost its Likeness to God. Only divi...