Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he shows favor.

HUMILITY IS A CHRISTIAN IDENTITY MARKER

What is humility, and why is it essential for Christians? These are questions we will explore throughout this book. Humility is a way of life rooted in submission to God and is demonstrated in actions that foster mutuality rather than competition. Humility is a biblical virtue, though it has often been misunderstood both inside and outside the church.

Eve-Marie Becker contends that “in early Christianity humility was regarded as a virtue that was unknown in the pagan world” and “thus as a Christian identity marker.”1 She references Augustine, who frequently mentions humility, and also a homily of fourth-century Pseudo-Macarius, who takes humility as “a sign of what is Christian.”2 In the first few centuries after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his followers could be identified by their humility.

This might prompt us to wonder what identifies Christians in our time. To some onlookers, bigotry, stinginess, racism, patriarchy, homophobia, nationalism, and hypocrisy are among the signifiers of Christians in the United States. But even if we aren’t that cynical, we might confess that there is only an ambiguous witness to those observing Christian faith when it comes to humility. As much as we might nod in agreement that humility is important and necessary, we struggle to practice it.

My dearest friend, a fellow pastor, has wondered aloud with me whether the Christian struggle to practice humility is because we generally abhor vulnerability. The church is often the last place where we can confess our sins to one another and pray for each other so that we can all be healed (see Jas 5:16). There are always exceptions to what my friend and I have observed in our combined sixty-five or so years of Christian ministry, but we are not far from the mark. Many of us might struggle to practice humility because we misunderstand it as a sign of weakness, even though we give lip service to the contrary.

Jane Foulcher states, “While humility had a central place in early Christian theology and practice, it has generally been marginalized by the modern Western world and in contemporary Christian life.”3 Foulcher is one of several authors who note that Scottish philosopher David Hume dismissed humility as a “monkish virtue,” and German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche referred to humility as Christian “slave morality” that demonized the pursuit of power and self-fulfillment.4 There is also a stream within Christianity that distorts humility by equating it with humiliation and smallness.

For example, in his book Humility the mystic Andrew Murray consistently presses readers to view themselves as insignificant, going so far as to say, “Accept every humiliation, look upon every fellow-man who tries or vexes you, as a means of grace to humble you.”5 In light of Murray’s context, however, this advice is problematic. Murray appears to have been instrumental in setting the stage for apartheid in South Africa by introducing a resolution in the Dutch Reformed Church for racially separate congregations.6 Given Murray’s perspective on segregation, he seemed to be chiefly concerned about the vexation that White people received. The oppressed Blacks of South Africa surely did not need to be told that what Whites were doing to them was God’s way of humbling them. Murray’s perspective on humility does not address the power differentials in society—some of which Christians either created or supported. Yet true humility means movement toward justice rather than away from it.

Humility’s bad reputation has made many of us wary of becoming doormats. Consequently, most speakers and writers are quick to distinguish humility from self-deprecation.7 Yet this can lead to other kinds of distortion. John Dickson is about as far from Andrew Murray as one can get, selling humility as beneficial for success in our society: “My thesis is simple: The most influential and inspiring people are often marked by humility.”8 Dickson goes on to present humility as a quintessential American value, offering exemplars from the worlds of business, sports, and the military—the usual trinity invoked as inspiration for church leaders in our nation.

Perspectives like that of Andrew Murray present humility as self-loathing, while views like that of Dickson present humility as a stepping stone for upward mobility in our competitive society. Since both of those views appear to me as distortions, I find Reinhard Feldmeier’s viewpoint helpful: “When we speak of humility, we must always bear in mind these possibilities that the idea of humility may be distorted and abused; these possibilities are probably as old as the concept itself.”9 Perhaps our eagerness and care to present humility in a...