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

CHAPTER 2:
THE DESCENT INTO SELF-DECEPTION
Scholars of Bernard’s spiritual theology have long noted the central place the vice
of pride assumes in the abbot’s account of humanity’s fall and humanity’s subsequent
fallen condition. In their treatments of this theme, some scholars have moreover
correctly observed that, for Bernard, pride entails some form of self-ignorance, defective
self-knowledge, or, more precisely, some form of “self deception.” 138 The discovery of
Bernard’s doctrine of proud “self-deception” is significant insofar as it correctly
acknowledges that, for the abbot of Clairvaux, the vice of pride engenders not so much a
sheer ignorance of self, but a false self-understanding which takes the place of true self-
knowledge. As we saw in previous chapter, Bernard teaches that pride indeed originates
in ignorance of self, but ultimately culminates in a false, and self-aggrandizing, self-
knowledge. As Bernard writes in SC 37:
138 For example, John Sommerfeldt writes “If [for Bernard] humility is self-knowledge, pride is
self-deception.” Sommefeldt, The Spiritual Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux, 53. Likewise, Michael
Casey argues that, for Bernard, “Self-deception was the cause of the fall…” and that fallen human beings
find themselves susceptible to this same self-deception. Casey, Athirst for God: Spiritual Desire in
Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs, 156. Though they do not use the phrase “selfdeception”
per se, other students of the abbot’s work have identified this false self-understanding with
various synonyms. For example, Denis Farkasfalvy has written of the proud monk’s creation of a “false
image” of himself. Farkasfalvy, “St. Bernard’s Spirituality and the Benedictine Rule in The Steps of
Humility,” 254. Similarly, Roch Kerestzy argues that, for Bernard, the fallen human being is “alienated
from himself” and, moreover, subject to a “false self-consciousness.” Kereszty, “Relationship between
Anthropology and Christology. St. Bernard, a Teacher for Our Age,” 275. In the same vein, Charles
Dumont suggests that, for Bernard, the fallen human being suffers from a “falsification” of the truth
concerning himself. Dumont, Pathway of Peace: Cistercian Wisdom According to Saint Bernard, 43-46.
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