Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 73:1 (Spring 2011)
Article: Covenantal Spirituality: Bernardine Themes In Calvin’s Covenantal Theology
Author: David Barbee

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WTJ 73:1 (Spring 2011) p. 133

Covenantal Spirituality:
Bernardine Themes In Calvin’s Covenantal Theology

David Barbee

David M. Barbee is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania.

Several studies point toward John Calvin’s appropriation of the thought of Bernard of Clairvaux. Through a careful analysis of Calvin’s writings, Anthony Lane demonstrates that Calvin’s knowledge of and appreciation for Bernard increased over time, particularly in regard to questions related to justification and free will as well as a few other areas.1 While Lane concerns himself largely with how Calvin uses Bernard in dogmatic polemics, Dennis Tamburello addresses Calvin’s borrowing of Bernardine spirituality and finds some remarkable similarities, namely that each thinker conceives of mystical union in strikingly comparable terms in that each describes this process as a spiritual marriage that weds one to Christ and occurs within the context of the church.2 Tamburello also refers to one significant difference of emphasis that has not been cultivated. He writes that “Calvin is meticulous in describing unio in relation to the ordinary means of grace, particularly the sacraments. This connection, while not absent from Bernard, is less emphasized.”3 In fact, Tamburello’s observation alludes to one of the areas in which Calvin and other Reformed theologians develop Medieval theology or spirituality. Calvin inherits the broad contours of Bernardine spirituality—the notion that a Christian or the church is the bride of Christ—and gives it a more distinct shape in the development of his covenantal theology by more clearly defining spiritual marriage in the terms of a contract.4

WTJ 73:1 (Spring 2011) p. 134

Unfortunately, Calvin did not leave a commentary on the Canticles to make an easy comparison with Bernard. An examination of the parallels between the covenant, marriage, and spiritual union will greatly illuminate the matter.

I. The Bride Of Christ In Bernard

Bernardine spirituality is most explicitly described in his famous sermons on the Canticles. Much like the church father Origen, Bernard maintains the ambiguity the Alexandrian pointed to in assigning roles for the interlocutors in his homilies on the Song of Songs.5 It is clear that the groom is God. Bernard affirms that the bride can be understood as either the individual soul or the church. In fact, after delivering sermon 68, it seems that Bernard was ...

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