When Brill's editor Julian Deahl some years ago asked if I might be interested in editing a Companion to Bernard of Clairvaux, I was very much in doubt. In previously editing a Companion to Jean Gerson I had a handful of colleagues who were experts in the late medieval theologian. With Bernard there was a potential army of scholars, as well as an armful of scholarship reaching back into the nineteenth century. Gerson deserved to be discovered, while Bernard was already known, for better and worse, as the difficult saint, the first European and an arch-demon of the persecuting society. It was with fear and trembling that I approached Bernard, and I am still convinced that in my own work, I have not even begun to do him justice. His Latin style, contemplative dimension, political importance in twelfth-century Europe, contribution to the Cistercian Order, views on art and architecture, and continuing relevance in the centuries after his death: all these aspects of Bernard deserve to be addressed. Thankfully I was able to find colleagues and friends who were willing to do so, and I am grateful to them for joining me in this project. I am most of all grateful to Chrysogonus Waddell, OCSO (Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance = Trappists), to whom this book is dedicated. As monk of Gethsemani Abbey, he was taught by the legendary Thomas Merton. I never knew Merton but I came to know Chrysogonus as the enthusiastic and attentive brother who would sit through every single Cistercian session at the yearly Kalamazoo Congress. He almost always had a helpful and enlightening question to pose, even when he was not happy with the speaker. Thanks to Chrysogonus the works of Bernard were sent to me free of charge. He somehow knew that I was not well off, and over the years the fruits of his Cistercian scholarship faithfully came my way. I am only one of dozens or even hundreds of scholars who have benefited from his expertise and insights, and so it was a relief to receive the final draft of his own article just weeks before his death in November 2008. Now I can share with the readers of this book the last thoughts of Chrysogonus on Merton and Saint Bernard. I am also grateful to John R. Sommerfeldt, whose contribution rounds out this book in an intensely personal yet also scholarly manner. As professor of history at Western Michigan University John in the 1960 initiated the meetings that turned into the Medieval Congress which now year after year attracts thousands of scholars. He also started the Cistercian Studies Conference, which takes place at Kalamazoo as part of the Medieval Congress. John's brief but important article tells of the development of a scholar of Saint Bernard. He still comes to Kalamazoo and continues to contribute to its unique meeting of monks, nuns, and lay scholars who seek the meaning of Cistercian and monastic life and spirituality in an historical context. Here Bernard of Clairvaux lives on, as I hope he also does in this book. E. Rozanne Elder became the director of the Institute for Cistercian Studies at Kalamazoo in 1973. She has been behind the Cistercian Studies Conference, and until recently was also editorial director of Cistercian Publications. Rozanne was present and welcoming in 1978, the first time I came to the Conference, and I have seen her time and again make scholars, lay and monastic, from every continent, at home in Kalamazoo. Her contribution to this volume summarizes work on William of Saint Thierry and Bernard that began with her doctoral thesis at the University of Toronto. The other scholars who contribute to this volume speak on their own behalf: Michael Casey, Cistercian-Trappist monk of Australia, whose seminal writings on Bernard and monastic spirituality are known all over the world; Constant J. Mews, also of Australia, whose brilliant work on Abelard has renewed our understanding of the man and who now offers a reappraisal of Bernard and Abelard; Christopher Holdsworth of Exeter, England, who for decades has been publishing important new studies on Bernard's life and writings and here brings some of this work together in a new synthesis; Burcht Pranger of the Netherlands, who has called attention to the rhetoric and literary dimension of Bernard's writings and calls me to order for claiming that we can use these sources for knowing about Bernard's inner life. Mette Bruun of Denmark also reviews Bernard's language, mainly in terms of symbols and images. In a new chair of church history at the Faculty of Theology, Copenhagen University, she is making it possible for Lutheran candidates for the priesthood to consider their medieval heritage. Diane Reilly of Indiana University has taken on the thankless task of reviewing scholarship on Bernard and art. Her article is clear and concise and locates Bernard in the midst of twelfth-century discussions on how to use art in religious life. My friend James France of Oxfordshire is not always in agreement with her and has his own understanding of Bernard and art. But James makes clear how Bernard was conceived in his Nachleben. As editor, I make no attempt to reconcile different points of view; I only insist that the scholars who gave their work to this volume are the brightest and the best that I could find! I am grateful to the Brill editors for supporting the idea of this volume, especially to Julian Deahl, another Kalamazoo regular who sits for days at a time in his booth talking with potential contributors to Brill volumes. I am thankful for good conversations with him and for his promptness in responding to queries, in spite of an immense work load, and also to Ivo Romein, who has been Brill house editor for this volume. The outside reader, Tyler Sergent of Marshall University, West Virginia, contributed his recommendation and good suggestions. The copy editor, Juleen Eichinger of Tucson, Arizona, caught many a lapse on my part and has made the stylistic practices of the different articles more consistent. Finally I am grateful to several of the contributors to this volume for their help in compiling what must be the most comprehensive bibliography of bernardian studies to date. Here I am especially beholden to my dear Cistercian friend and Kalamazoo editor, E. Rozanne Elder. Kalundborg, Denmark 20 August 2010 The Solemnity of Saint Bernard Excerpted from A Companion to Bernard of Clairvaux All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
