What is humility, and why does it matter? Who talks about humility and should we still embrace it?
I attempted to explore these questions through my dissertation, “Prophetic Humility: A Feminist Theological Account.” I realized I didn’t know how to think about or categorize humility.
For instance, humility seemed studied within virtue ethics, but many studies ignored contemporary power differentials and marginalized voices. Or, humility was equated to kenosis, a Greek word that appears one time in the early hymn of Philippians 2:7, where Christ “empties himself” in the incarnation.
Was kenosis descriptive of Christ’s action or prescriptive for all Christ-followers? And what about people who were forced to be “emptied” against their will? I wanted to see if one could have humility without humiliation and if humility as a practice was still useful or helpful, considering injustices occurring around the world.
I looked at medieval women mystics, who specifically spoke on humility as they sought out God. And I looked at 19th-century American Black women preachers, who often experienced humiliation as they prophesied and preached.
My thesis, still tentative, was that a prophetic humility was a way of being that pointed to the foolishness of God, the incarnation, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This humility was necessarily mystical, holding together both self-reflection and prophetic action. And humility is always contextual, acknowledging the way power and agency function differently in various spaces.
I am still uncertain if that thesis holds weight. Yet, a few years later and more wearied from the state of the world, I find myself turning to humility again with a renewed sense of need and purpose.
What can and should humility look like today? Here’s what I am thinking:
- Humility still has value.
I still believe it’s not only a Christian way of being in the world, but also allows us to recognize and tell the truth about the state of the world and the state of ourselves. - It’s difficult to see when we’re not practicing humility.
Jesus’ metaphor about focusing on the speck in our neighbor’s eye and ignoring the log in our own still rings true. When reflecting on my own life and on public discourse, I have a hard time seeing where I do not practice humility. I miss growing edges and often get caught up in my own thoughts without considering the consequences of my words and actions. - Humility and curiosity go hand in hand.
I have often used Bernard McGinn’s concept of mysticism: The preparation and expectation of a direct encounter with the divine. To prepare and to expect requires a curiosity about the world and attentiveness to God’s presence.
We become curious about how people are motivated and how those motivations lead to actions. We become curious about how God may be working in places we never thought possible. Curiosity is a tool of humility, allowing us to become open to the world. - Humility makes us uncomfortable. To recognize we’re in a process of becoming is uncomfortable. To recognize that others may have more wisdom and insight is uncomfortable. To recognize we may be wrong is uncomfortable. Discomfort often leads us to grow.
- Self-reflection comes before and with any meaningful change.
The Black mystical theologian Howard Thurman describes self-reflection this way in his Mysticism and the Experience of Love: “[One] can become at home within by locating in [their] own spirit the trysting place where [they] and God may meet. Here it is that life may become private, personal, without at the same time becoming self-centered…. here the individual comes to [themselves], the wanderer comes home, and the private life is saved for deliberate involvement.” - Humility is still prophetic.
To be a prophet is to tell the truth. The truth about ourselves, and the truth about others, even as our voices shake. We see this with the communion of saints throughout Christian history, from Catherine of Siena to Martin Luther King, Jr., who both, compelled by God, told the truth to the powers at be. - Ultimately, humility is necessary to hope.
To be humble and hopeful is to recognize that God’s kindom has not yet come. At times, these two attributes may look foolish or silly—why participate in something that can never change? Why bother?
Nonetheless, a practice and posture of humility enable us to live out the hope promised in and with Christ.
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Kate Hanch is an ordained Baptist minister and is the Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Perkins School of Theology. Her first book, Storied Witness, was published by Fortress Press.
