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

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possibilities of conversion and restoration in the lost divine likeness by God’s grace in Christ. More recent scholarship has tended to follow this same line of interpretation. Thus, in his study of spiritual desire in Bernard’s Sermons on the Song of Songs, Michael Casey argues that, for Bernard, “desire for God begins with self-knowledge.” 14 This self- knowledge consists in acknowledging both one’s underlying orientation to God as created in his image and one’s suffering as the consequence of having lost the divine likeness through sin. In recognizing one’s orientation to God as made in his image, one grows discontent with the ephemeral satisfactions of this life and so begins to desire another, better life. In accepting suffering as the consequence of the loss of the divine likeness through sin, one confesses one’s need for God’s forgiveness and healing and so begins the journey of restoration in the divine likeness. In his The Spiritual Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux, John R. Sommerfeldt follows Gilson in closely associating Bernard’s teaching on self-knowledge with his understanding of humility as the foundation of the spiritual life. “In Bernard’s educational program,” Sommerfeldt contends, “the first step on the path to perfection, to happiness, is humility” and “humility…is an intellectual virtue; it is self-knowledge.” 15 More precisely, “humility is seeing oneself as one truly is; in humility one measures this self-knowledge against another knowledge, the knowledge of what one could be.” 16 For 14 Michael Casey, Athirst for God: Spiritual Desire in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs, Cistercian Studies 77 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1988), 157. 15 John R. Sommerfeldt, The Spiritual Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux: An Intellectual History of the Early Cistercian Order, Cistercian Studies 125 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1991), 53. 16 Sommerfeldt, The Spiritual Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux, 53. 9
Bernard, Sommerfeldt continues, humility entails a right ordering of the intellect, a just self-judgment in imitation of the Son of God as Judge, and a “realistic, honest appraisal of oneself” that “leads to knowledge of one’s weakness and one’s strength…and the source of one’s strength, which is God.” 17 Sommerfeldt has, moreover, reiterated these points in his more recent studies of the abbot’s epistemology and the relational dimensions of his spirituality. 18 Similarly, in his own study of Bernard’s mystical theology, Bernard McGinn has taken up Gilson’s insight that, for the abbot of Clairvaux, the soul’s knowledge of its simultaneous grandeur and misery as a disfigured image of God constitutes the origin of the soul’s life of continuing conversion. McGinn writes: “For the abbot of Clairvaux, our experience of life is one of an almost unbearable tension between what we were meant to be and what we are – between the grandeur and misery of the human condition.” 19 He adds that “The existential starting point of Bernard’s anthropology, the Christian adaptation Delphic maxim ‘Know thyself’ (Scito teipsum), was this recognition of our combined misery and majesty.” 20 For Bernard, McGinn continues, “self-knowledge, then, is the knowledge of our sinfulness and the predominance of ‘carnality’ in the evil sense in our lives.” 21 This self-knowledge, this honest recognition of our sinfulness, is so foundational for the abbot because it both reveals “the necessity for humility as the 17 Sommerfeldt, The Spiritual Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux, 57. 18 See especially John R. Sommerfeldt, Bernard of Clairvaux: On the Life of the Mind (New York: Newman Press, 2004), 92-93, 96-97; Bernard of Clairvaux: On the Spirituality of Relationship (New York: Newman Press, 2004), 39-40, 91-92. 19 McGinn, “Bernard of Clairvaux: ‘That Contemplative’ (Quel Contemplante),” 172. 20 McGinn, “Bernard of Clairvaux: ‘That Contemplative’ (Quel Contemplante),” 172. 21 McGinn, “Bernard of Clairvaux: ‘That Contemplative’ (Quel Contemplante),” 173. 10
Page 1 and 2: MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 3 and 4: MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 5 and 6: To my Father, James U. DeFrancis, S
Page 7 and 8: Christ as the Model of Self-Knowled
Page 9 and 10: esearch: John Cavadini, Cyril O’R
Page 11 and 12: self-knowledge is the indispensible
Page 13 and 14: For Bernard, then, humble self-know
Page 15 and 16: likeness of charity. Within the Cis
Page 17: When Gilson asserted that by self-k
Page 21 and 22: a “false image” of himself. 26
Page 23 and 24: some newfound and joyous moment of
Page 25 and 26: ecognize that same sinfulness in hi
Page 27 and 28: foundations of man’s return to Go
Page 29 and 30: the descent of humility begins the
Page 31 and 32: saving work of Jesus Christ in the
Page 33 and 34: the humility, obedience, and love C
Page 35 and 36: Of particular importance to Bernard
Page 37 and 38: and second, “what it is like in i
Page 39 and 40: In his ground-breaking study of med
Page 41 and 42: direct links between the two. 52 It
Page 43 and 44: swells in one’s heart that it mov
Page 45 and 46: pride as “the desire for a perver
Page 47 and 48: The knowledge of self and God in th
Page 49 and 50: mercy until you renew all that is i
Page 51 and 52: CHAPTER 1: THE SCOPE OF BERNARD’S
Page 53 and 54: Prior to its first conversion, Bern
Page 55 and 56: Origen, Bernard here and elsewhere
Page 57 and 58: of God, they will grow ever more un
Page 59 and 60: and love as she is loved, and the B
Page 61 and 62: In the interim or “meanwhile” o
Page 63 and 64: Why do you judge yourself worthy to
Page 65 and 66: For Bernard, the lesson to be drawn
Page 67 and 68: warning and why should it compel he
Page 69 and 70:
worldly things her flesh and senses
Page 71 and 72:
aspired to seize a kind of parody o
Page 73 and 74:
thousands of evils upon our entire
Page 75 and 76:
edemptive work is suitably adapted
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emains forever, this grass too rema
Page 79 and 80:
graciously condescending to assume
Page 81 and 82:
Thus the abbot resolves his spiritu
Page 83 and 84:
of self-knowledge enabled self-dece
Page 85 and 86:
humbles himself will be exalted”
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Church, enabling scholars to instru
Page 89 and 90:
Through this unflinching self-exami
Page 91 and 92:
soon tempers my bitter vision of my
Page 93 and 94:
edeem him, sanctify him, and offer
Page 95 and 96:
As observed above, in the second ha
Page 97 and 98:
modeled and effected by the Word-ma
Page 99 and 100:
Ignorance of self breeds pride when
Page 101 and 102:
consideration of others and their a
Page 103 and 104:
consideration of his treatise as a
Page 105 and 106:
symmetry between these two parts an
Page 107 and 108:
Though this discrepancy at first ap
Page 109 and 110:
self, God, and neighbor. Since it i
Page 111 and 112:
estored in this divine likeness as
Page 113 and 114:
eturn to his suffering brothers and
Page 115 and 116:
much more should the monk not exalt
Page 117 and 118:
for your brother’s misery and not
Page 119 and 120:
sinful weakness and nothing of thei
Page 121 and 122:
Finally, we should note that Bernar
Page 123 and 124:
journey to which the monk will comm
Page 125 and 126:
and judge others or to see how they
Page 127 and 128:
condemned. Lifting his eyes in humi
Page 129 and 130:
will contrary to both the law of Go
Page 131 and 132:
in him by her obedience to his will
Page 133 and 134:
contempt not only for herself and h
Page 135 and 136:
his rule over the reprobate he woul
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in misery rather than to be subject
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descending these early steps of pri
Page 141 and 142:
pleases them and avoid what makes t
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knows.” 201 Should the topic of c
Page 145 and 146:
Here abbot Bernard figures the prou
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ut believe in his inmost heart that
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Asserting Self-Will Against Superio
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As so often in his narrative of the
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who he is, everyone judges him, and
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monk’s descent into this deepest
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God in heaven. He will acknowledge
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Consumed by this self-centered love
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their hearts. Hence Bernard’s fre
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done…by whoever would walk in the
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In recognizing the two distinct mom
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experience, lamenting how he has ma
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inward movement in the soul. In any
Page 171 and 172:
share with them in that divine merc
Page 173 and 174:
Operating inwardly within this judg
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the Truth in his own nature? Matter
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arguing from both allusions in text
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upon the “stage” of the soul an
Page 181 and 182:
(Is 46:8). For Bernard, this first
Page 183 and 184:
desperate need for the healing grac
Page 185 and 186:
consolations afforded it by the lif
Page 187 and 188:
thoroughly diseased: reason now see
Page 189 and 190:
Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
Page 191 and 192:
In this vision, reason is permitted
Page 193 and 194:
conscience she enjoys through the m
Page 195 and 196:
Word of God, “that living and eff
Page 197 and 198:
knowledge and contempt of himself,
Page 199 and 200:
The Self-Awareness of the Bride in
Page 201 and 202:
When the brightness of this beauty
Page 203 and 204:
For Bernard, then, the soul that ha
Page 205 and 206:
figure of this Ecclesia-Sponsa. On
Page 207 and 208:
Conclusion Having considered three
Page 209 and 210:
self-awareness as his own Bride, ra
Page 211 and 212:
CHAPTER 4: SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE M
Page 213 and 214:
Christ’s incarnate, crucified, an
Page 215 and 216:
indeed to the entirety of his theol
Page 217 and 218:
significant individual expressions
Page 219 and 220:
The foregoing elements of Bernard
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descended and ascended and showed u
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self, neighbor, and God. He has sho
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own, and from your own experience l
Page 227 and 228:
excursus has been labeled a “digr
Page 229 and 230:
“learned” (didicit) is being pr
Page 231 and 232:
To resolve this question, Bernard r
Page 233 and 234:
You see, therefore, that Christ is
Page 235 and 236:
to the Spirit, by contemplation in
Page 237 and 238:
worse, misguided view of the abbot
Page 239 and 240:
Christ’s Ascension culminates in
Page 241 and 242:
conformed to him. Then, through the
Page 243 and 244:
Modeling this laudabilis curiositas
Page 245 and 246:
The theme of Word’s example of vo
Page 247 and 248:
equally deadly, extreme of despair.
Page 249 and 250:
and humbled by God, so that there w
Page 251 and 252:
as essential elements of the Word I
Page 253 and 254:
led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
Page 255 and 256:
delivered us from sin and enabled u
Page 257 and 258:
miseria and fires it with the confi
Page 259 and 260:
death to bring about a real, inward
Page 261 and 262:
sins,” “justification,” and
Page 263 and 264:
these life-giving virtues, we must
Page 265 and 266:
precisely through, a careful approp
Page 267 and 268:
perhaps she means, “My Beloved in
Page 269 and 270:
To such a soul, the abbot continues
Page 271 and 272:
gradually assuming the figure of Ch
Page 273 and 274:
to judge themselves in Truth, and s
Page 275 and 276:
ejoice with those who rejoice and w
Page 277 and 278:
love of himself in the glory of div
Page 279 and 280:
I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
Page 281 and 282:
------. Sermo 29A. Edited by C. Lam
Page 283 and 284:
Courcelle, Pierre. Connais-toi toi-
Page 285 and 286:
------. “Le premier traité authe
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