Self-Knowledge in the Theology of Bernard Of
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MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN THE THEOLOGY OF BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by James U. DeFrancis, Jr. Ann W. Astell, Director Graduate Program in Theology Notre Dame, Indiana July 2012 © Copyright 2012 James U. DeFrancis, Jr. MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN THE THEOLOGY OF BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX Abstract by James U. DeFrancis, Jr. This dissertation examines the various forms and roles self-knowledge assumes in Bernard of Clairvaux’s overarching vision of the spiritual life. Previous scholarship on Bernard’s doctrine of self-knowledge has correctly emphasized the significance he attaches to humbling self-knowledge, or the soul’s honest self-recognition as a disfigured image of God, in the soul’s first conversion and the initial stages of its return to God. A certain scholarly preoccupation with this aspect of the abbot’s thought has, however, somewhat obscured the full breadth of Bernard’s teaching on self-knowledge and the diverse forms and roles it assumes across the various phases of the soul’s spiritual life, including those which both proceed and follow its first conversion. Prior to its first conversion, Bernard believes, the soul suffers not only from self- ignorance, but also from a self-deception, a false self-knowledge born of pride, by which it imagines itself superior to others and therefore not in need of conversion or healing. It is precisely because he recognizes the seductive power of this self-deception that Bernard so frequently insists upon the soul’s humbling recognition of its own sad disfigurement as James U. DeFrancis, Jr. the prerequisite for its return to God. Yet, the soul’s humbling self-awareness as a defaced image of God is far from Bernard’s final word on the subject of the soul’s self- knowledge. For as the soul undertakes the way of its restoration in the lost divine likeness by its gradual conformity to the humility and charity of Christ, it comes to know itself anew, as one gradually assuming the figure of Christ’s own Bride, radiant with her Bridegroom’s own beauty. Proceeding in four chapters, this dissertation begins with an overture to Bernard’s comprehensive doctrine of self-knowledge through a study of his Sermones super Cantica canticorum. Chapters 2 and 3 trace respectively his parallel accounts of the soul’s descent into self-deception by way of pride and self-will and its ascent to self- knowledge by way of humility and love. Finally, Chapter 4 shows how, for Bernard, Christ the Incarnate Word both models and effects the soul’s ascent to self-awareness as his Bride by his own journey of self-knowledge in his Incarnation. To my Father, James U. DeFrancis, Sr. 1943-1999 ii CONTENTS Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................v Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Literature on Bernard’s Doctrine of Self-Knowledge .............................................5 The Contribution of This Dissertation ...................................................................14 Method and Overview ............................................................................................17 Bernard’s Patristic Sources ....................................................................................22 Chapter 1: The Scope of Bernard’s Theology of Self-Knowledge ....................................42 SC 34-38: The Bride’s Journey of Likeness and Vision ........................................47 Adam’s Self-Deception ..........................................................................................57 Christ as the Teacher of Self-Knowledge ..............................................................65 The Ways of Self-Knowledge and Self-Deception ................................................71 Conclusion .............................................................................................................87 Chapter 2: The Descent into Self-Deception .....................................................................89 The Structure of the On the Steps of Humility and Pride ......................................94 The Three Steps of Truth .....................................................................................100 Pride as the Desire for One’s Own Superiority ...................................................106 The Twelve Steps of Pride ...................................................................................110 The First Step of Pride: Curiosity ........................................................................112 Cultivating Self-Deception: From Levitas Mentis to Singularitas ......................129 Embracing Self-Deception: Arrogantia ...............................................................136 Asserting Self-Will Against Superiors: From Praesumptio to Rebellio ..............140 Assertion of Self-Will Against God: From Libertas Peccandi to Consuetudo Peccandi ...................................................................................................145 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................150 Chapter 3: The Ascent to Self-Knowledge ......................................................................153 The Ascent of Self-Knowledge in On the Steps of Humility and Pride ..............157 The Ascent of Self-Knowledge in On Conversion ..............................................167 The Self-Awareness of the Bride in SC 85 ..........................................................190 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................198 Chapter 4: Self-Knowledge and the Mysteries of Christ’s Life ......................................202 Doctrine and Spirituality in Bernard’s Christology .............................................205 Christ’s Ascent of the Three Steps of Truth ........................................................214 iii Christ as the Model of Self-Knowledge in the Sermones per annum ..................227 The Mysteries of Christ’s Descent and the Cultivation of Humility ...................232 The Mystery of Christ’s Passion and the Cultivation of Humility and Love ......239 The Mysteries of Christ’s Ascent and the Growth of Love .................................241 The Mystery of Pentecost and New Self-Knowledge in the Spirit ......................244 The Paschal Lamb as the Source of the Soul’s Growth in Self-Knowledge .......248 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................255 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................257 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................270 iv 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 v research: John Cavadini, Cyril O’Regan, Fr. Paulinus Odozor, C.S.Sp., Lawrence Cunningham, Thomas Prügl, Nathan Mitchell, Michael Driscoll and, above all, the late Michael Signer, who first inspired and nurtured my love of twelfth-century theology and exegesis. I must also add a word of thanks to Cheron Price for her kind friendship and administrative help throughout my time at Notre Dame. Third, I would like to thank my friends and family for their invaluable support - spiritual, academic, and personal - throughout my time spent in research and writing. In a special way, I would like to thank Abbot Thomas Frerking, O.S.B. and the monks of St. Louis Abbey who taught me, more by example than by words, the true meaning of the monastic vocation, which is the very heart of monastic theology past and present. In particular, I owe a