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

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I would like to thank the members of my committee for their unfailing
encouragement and wise counsel throughout the process of conceiving, researching and
writing this dissertation. I am especially indebted to my director, Sr. Ann Astell, who
first introduced me to the theology and writings of Bernard and the twelfth-century
Cistercian Fathers. More than anyone else, Sr. Ann has taught me to savor the manifold
beauty of their thought and rhetorical style, and for this precious gift I am deeply grateful
to her. I would also like to thank Fr. Brian Daley for helping me to investigate and better
understand Bernard’s use of his patristic sources, most especially Augustine, and for his
many constructive comments on the argument of this dissertation more broadly speaking.
Finally, I would like to thank Professor Joseph Wawrykow for his generous mentorship
throughout my time in the Masters and PhD programs, and most recently for his
invitation to consider more deeply Bernard’s Christology and its place within his doctrine
of self-knowledge.
Second, I would like to acknowledge with gratitude J. Matthew Ashley and the
Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Over the past seven years, the
department has not only generously supported my studies, but also provided a community
of conversation, teaching, and learning which has been immensely formative of me and
my research. In particular, I would like to recognize several professors who though not
on my committee nevertheless provided me with outstanding models of teaching and
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