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

imitate not Christ, but the crowds of this world who go forth after their “goats” or carnal
desires.
Here it is important to note that in their respective commentaries on Sg 1:7, both
Origen and Gregory concern themselves exclusively with the case of faithful souls, of the
elect, of those who have already passed beyond their first conversion and have therefore
already begun the journey to God by their restoration in the lost divine likeness. This
would seem to confirm a significant finding of this dissertation: when, as we will see,
Bernard maintains that the role of self-knowledge in the spiritual life does not cease at
conversion, but continues through the soul’s graced renewal in the divine likeness, he is
simply following the patristic tradition he inherits. As we will see in our study of SC 34-
38, the abbot alludes to this tradition by constructing an inclusio extending from SC 34.1
to SC 38.5-8 in which he discusses the self-knowledge of the Bride as the self-knowledge
of those who have already entered the way of the spiritual life. Within the bounds of this
inclusio, however, Bernard goes beyond Origen and Gregory’s expositions to discuss the
various forms of self-knowledge, or self-deception, the soul experiences at various other
stages in its spiritual journey, including its experience prior to conversion and its
experience of its first conversion itself.
Any study, however rudimentary, of Bernard’s patristic sources would not, of
course, be complete without a look at his use of Augustine, the Western Father who most
permeates his theology and spirituality. Yet, as Casey has observed, Augustine’s
influence on Bernard’s thought was “vast and diffuse,” often making it difficult to trace
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