Christian Scriptures and the Formation of Intellectual Humility

This article considers the role that Christian Scriptures play in the formation of intellectual humility within Christian community. Intellectual humility is often considered in abstraction from these and their influence on how the virtue is itself conceived is seldom considered in depth. This article highlights that the Bible, considered as sacred scripture, shapes the way Christians think about humility by using certain words in certain ways: a core lexicon associated with poverty or low status is linked to the expectation that the humble person will be dependent upon God and will submit to his rule. This bears on the intellect of the humble person, who must depend upon and yield to God in their evaluation of the world and in their decisions about how to act. This, however, is just one strand to a complex representation of the virtue that is dramatically shaped by the incarnation of Jesus, whose own humility is not just an act of human submission to God, but of divine condescension. In addition to these elements, I will argue that the concept of virtue itself should be carefully qualified to acknowledge that the acting self is identified as a participant in the identity of Jesus Christ.