Remembering Christian Humility

Augustine’s Confessions is a locus classicus for early Christian privileging of the virtue of humility. This chapter shows that the contemporary “memory” of Christian humility fails to capture what Augustine took humility to be in the Confessions. Augustine had all the marks of the contemporary memory of “Christian humility,” yet still took himself to lack the humility of Jesus. The chapter then tries to supply an account of Augustinian humility. Augustinian humility is best understood as the virtue opposed to the Roman valorization of self-sufficiency and immortality. The chapter concludes by trying to relate Augustinian humility to the most prevalent contemporary accounts of humility, low concern and limitations-owning. Neither of those accounts can be assimilated to an Augustinian account of humility.