Bernard of Clairvaux
1090-1153 · Christian Mysticism · Known
Bernard was a twelfth-century Cistercian abbot and a mystic of the affections, for whom the whole spiritual life is one thing, loving God. On Loving God climbs four degrees, from loving yourself for your own sake, to loving God for his own sake, and last to loving yourself only for God's sake, which comes close to union with him. Salvation, he taught, takes grace and a will that consents to it.
Signature
The position Bernard is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence
- Highest Good
- Union with God / Love
Positions on the 4 axes the sources answer
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (95 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (100 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- War
- leans Militarism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
16 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Bernard refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Union with God / Love
What is the highest good? - Agency
- Synergism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Authority
- Divine Revelation / Sacred Tradition
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Role of Emotion
- Path to the Divine
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?