MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN THE ...

In recognizing the two distinct moments of self-awareness the soul experiences
first in its initial conversion and then its is full restoration in the lost divine likeness,
Gilson and Kereszty have, in effect, marked the origin and the culmination of the soul’s
ascent to self-awareness as the Bride. Yet, in his various reflections on this ascent of
self-knowledge that accompanies the soul’s return to God, Bernard has in fact marked out
several intervening phases of self-understanding the soul experiences as it makes this
ascent. The aim of the present chapter will be to trace Bernard’s teaching on these phases
of self-awareness and their relationships to one another. In so doing, we hope to show
that Bernard offers a nuanced narration of the soul’s ascent to self-knowledge that
matches in its psychological insight the narrative of the soul’s descent into self-deception
he depicts in On the Steps of Humility and Pride.
In order to obtain the most comprehensive picture of the abbot’s narration of this
ascent, we will consider three of his most significant itineraries of the spiritual life taken
from the early, middle, and later periods of his career respectively. Following the
methodology proposed in the Introduction, we will begin with Bernard’s teaching in On
the Steps of Humility and Pride and, more specifically, with his itinerary of the three
steps of Truth. Here the abbot lays the foundations for a schema of the soul’s ascent to
God by humility, charity, and contemplation that underlies all his subsequent
schematizations of this ascent in their manifold variety. In this earliest spiritual itinerary,
we will see, the abbot has already identified the two distinct moments of the soul’s self-
awareness, attained at the origin and the culmination of the soul’s ascent respectively,
which delimit the journey of self-knowledge to be described below.
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