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

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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. 89
Ignorance of self breeds pride when your deceived and deceiving thoughts lie to you, convincing you that you are better than you truly are. For this is pride, the beginning of all sin, when you are greater in your own eyes than you are in the eyes of God, than you are in Truth. 139 Though previous scholarship has correctly acknowledged Bernard’s belief that pride entails some form of self-deception as opposed to sheer self-ignorance, the abbot’s teaching on this prideful self-deception, and more specifically that form of prideful self- deception to which the monk is most susceptible, has yet to receive the sustained scholarly attention it deserves. In his very first spiritual treatise, On the Steps of Humility and Pride, Bernard presents a thoroughly developed and remarkably nuanced theory of the self-deception born of pride which reflects both his natural psychological acuity and his years of experience as a father and teacher within Benedict’s school for the Lord’s service. Here Bernard not only defines the precise nature of this prideful self-deception in the monastic context, but also traces its origins, development, and tragic consequences through an innovative inversion of the twelve steps of humility found in the seventh chapter of Benedict’s Regula. Indeed Bernard’s narration of the monk’s descent through the twelve steps of pride may be read as a miniature treatise on prideful self-deception that supplies the necessary context for understanding his frequent insistence on the essential function of self-knowledge in the spiritual life. If Bernard regularly exhorts his monastic sons to “know thyself,” this is so because he is already keenly aware of their susceptibility to prideful self-deception through the stages he traces in his account of pride’s twelve steps. Accordingly, this chapter aims to articulate Bernard’s theory of 139 SC 37.6 (II, 12): “Sic autem superbiam parit tibi ignorantia tui, cum meliorem quam sis, decepta et deceptrix tua cogitatio te esse mentitur. Hoc quippe est superbia, hoc initium omnis peccati, cum maior in tuis es oculis quam apud Deum, quam in veritate.” 90
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MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
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MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
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To my Father, James U. DeFrancis, S
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Christ as the Model of Self-Knowled
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esearch: John Cavadini, Cyril O’R
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self-knowledge is the indispensible
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For Bernard, then, humble self-know
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likeness of charity. Within the Cis
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When Gilson asserted that by self-k
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Bernard, Sommerfeldt continues, hum
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a “false image” of himself. 26
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some newfound and joyous moment of
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ecognize that same sinfulness in hi
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foundations of man’s return to Go
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the descent of humility begins the
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saving work of Jesus Christ in the
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the humility, obedience, and love C
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Of particular importance to Bernard
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and second, “what it is like in i
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In his ground-breaking study of med
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direct links between the two. 52 It
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swells in one’s heart that it mov
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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
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Page 73 and 74: thousands of evils upon our entire
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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”
Page 87 and 88: 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
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Page 95 and 96: As observed above, in the second ha
Page 97: modeled and effected by the Word-ma
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
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Page 121 and 122: Finally, we should note that Bernar
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Page 127 and 128: condemned. Lifting his eyes in humi
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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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Page 139 and 140: descending these early steps of pri
Page 141 and 142: pleases them and avoid what makes t
Page 143 and 144: knows.” 201 Should the topic of c
Page 145 and 146: Here abbot Bernard figures the prou
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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
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share with them in that divine merc
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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
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(Is 46:8). For Bernard, this first
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desperate need for the healing grac
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consolations afforded it by the lif
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thoroughly diseased: reason now see
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Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
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In this vision, reason is permitted
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conscience she enjoys through the m
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Word of God, “that living and eff
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knowledge and contempt of himself,
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The Self-Awareness of the Bride in
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When the brightness of this beauty
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For Bernard, then, the soul that ha
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figure of this Ecclesia-Sponsa. On
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Conclusion Having considered three
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self-awareness as his own Bride, ra
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CHAPTER 4: SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE M
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Christ’s incarnate, crucified, an
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indeed to the entirety of his theol
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significant individual expressions
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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
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excursus has been labeled a “digr
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“learned” (didicit) is being pr
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To resolve this question, Bernard r
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You see, therefore, that Christ is
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to the Spirit, by contemplation in
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worse, misguided view of the abbot
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Christ’s Ascension culminates in
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conformed to him. Then, through the
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Modeling this laudabilis curiositas
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The theme of Word’s example of vo
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equally deadly, extreme of despair.
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and humbled by God, so that there w
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as essential elements of the Word I
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led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
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delivered us from sin and enabled u
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miseria and fires it with the confi
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death to bring about a real, inward
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sins,” “justification,” and
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these life-giving virtues, we must
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precisely through, a careful approp
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perhaps she means, “My Beloved in
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To such a soul, the abbot continues
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gradually assuming the figure of Ch
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to judge themselves in Truth, and s
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ejoice with those who rejoice and w
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love of himself in the glory of div
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I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
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------. Sermo 29A. Edited by C. Lam
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Courcelle, Pierre. Connais-toi toi-
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------. “Le premier traité authe
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