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

CHAPTER 1:
THE SCOPE OF BERNARD’S THEOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE
In the Introduction to this dissertation, we observed that, since the pioneering
work of Étienne Gilson, scholars of Bernard’s spiritual theology have consistently and
unanimously acknowledged the significant, and indeed essential, role that self-knowledge
assumes in the abbot’s account of the soul’s journey to God. When they have addressed
the theme of self-knowledge in the abbot’s thought, moreover, scholars have primarily, if
not exclusively, focused attention on the role true self-knowledge plays in Bernard’s
account of the soul’s first conversion and the initial stages of the spiritual itinerary. On
this reading, Bernard is taken to mean by cognitio sui, or self-knowledge, the fallen
soul’s recognition of itself as an image of God disfigured by sin. And, Bernard is taken
to regard this humbling self-knowledge as essential to the soul’s journey to God because
he believes that it is only in the light of this genuine self-awareness that the soul is moved
to humble itself before God and to seek its restoration in the lost divine likeness from
God’s hands. For Bernard, then, the soul does not begin to seek God until it first seeks
his healing for its sad disfigurement, but it does not seek God’s healing for its sad
disfigurement until it first humbly recognizes and confesses that sad disfigurement within
its very depths.
So far as it goes, this analysis Bernard’s theology of self-knowledge is just and
reflects a prominent theme in Bernard’s spiritual teaching. Though Bernard offers in his
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