Concluding Synthesis

Abstract

This chapter brings together the threads of the discussion developed through the previous chapters, reflecting on the constructive theological implications for Christian community and on the potential relevance of the theological discussion for the wider study of intellectual humility. The distinctively Christomorphic character of humility, as it is represented in the New Testament, requires that we speak of it as a ‘virtue’ only in qualified sense; it is not a property of the believing person in isolation, but of that person in union with Jesus Christ through the Spirit. This limits the possibilities for the New Testament material to speak into the wider discussion without careful reflection on its distinctive content. While elements within the New Testament representation of intellectual humility align with the common definitions of intellectual humility (‘low concern for status’, ‘ownership of limits’), the account is complex, and is not reducible to any one of these.