which was Bernard’s favorite Scripture to express union with God.^22 And,
“[f]urthermore, ‘he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him,’ his whole
being somehow changed into a movement of divine love.... But God is love, and the
deeper one’s union with God, the more full one is of love.”^23 Therefore, “[s]uch love,
as I have said, is marriage, for a soul cannot love like this and not be beloved;
complete and perfect marriage consists in the exchange of love.”^24 These two
reminders are representative of the essential nature of love for Bernard in spiritual
marriage.
Mystical union was also significant in John Calvin’s theology. In recent years
there has been considerable debate whether Calvin had a ‘central dogma.’ While the
older perception focused upon predestination, more recently the pendulum has swung
to the centrality of union with Christ.^25 However, the best of contemporary research,
while not seeking to minimize the importance of unio mystica, asserts that Calvin was
too complex to have a single ‘central dogma.’^26 Although Calvin’s writings are
replete with numerous references to union with Christ there are a few that focus
specifically on spiritual marriage. Calvin asserts,
God very commonly takes on the character of a husband to us. Indeed, the
union by which he binds us to himself when he receives us into the bosom of
the church is like sacred wedlock, which must rest upon mutual faithfulness [Eph. 5:29-32]. As he performs all the duties of a true and faithful husband, of
us in return he demands love and conjugal chastity. That is we are not to
yield our souls to Satan, to lust, and to the filthy desires of the flesh, to be
defiled by them.^27
(^22) McGinn, Growth of Mysticism (^) , 213, 215.
(^23) Bernard, SCC 26:5.
(^24) Bernard, SCC 83.6.
(^25) Partee, “Calvin’s Central Dogma Again,” 191-199 and Hageman, “Reformed
Spirituality,” 60 26 - 61. For an opposing view see Wenger “New Perspective on Calvin.”
27 Billings, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift, 19.^
section to reinforce the importance of faithfulness to God. Engrafting is Calvin’s Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.18. Calvin also draws upon Is 62:4-5 and Hos 2:19-20 in this