HOW CAN LOVE BE VIOLENT? REFLECTIONS ON RICHARD OF ST.VICTOR’S ON THE FOUR DEGREES OF VIOLENT LOVE

The following article focuses on Richard of St. Victor′s most original treatise: On the Four Degrees of Violent Love. Although the topic of violence within the Christian view on ethics, politics and theology was not at all new by 1173, the major contribution of this short but dense mystical writing consists in developing systematically the violence as an inherent consequence of the infinite charity. The love is so powerful that it “wounds, binds, languishes and brings on a faint”, but the same force may have different effects: if these four steps appear to be destructive when oriented to satisfy the “profane” desires, their infinite strength show providential effects when turned to the divine source of the charity.