Product Description
While Christian theologians and ethicists have long argued for the supreme value of humility, many contemporary thinkers have raised serious concerns that an emphasis on humility can halt intellectual reflection and dialogue and prevent opposition to the status quo, setting the stage for the perpetuation of unjust power relations. This book articulates early Christian discussions of the subject, offering a theological account of humility designed to address contemporary concerns. In light of various recent developments, feminist, liberationist, and postmodern theologians have offered both critiques of and calls to humility, so that its moral status is now more contentious than ever. Early Christian sources and discussions of the issue since the eighteenth century have almost universally discounted the ways in which human morality is permeable, superable and open to modification, because of the working of divine grace. This thesis explores primarily the renewed vision of intellectual humility, but also suggests the significance of the argument for ameliorating contemporary concerns about humility's adverse effects.