Humility vs arrogance - Research Paper Example

Often, it is an arrogance that has caused a disruption within an individual’s ability to cope. Therefore, in helping a congregate to understand the difference between humility and arrogance, a pastor can help a congregate to find a way to cope with the trouble that has entered their life. From an ethical perspective of studying the idea of humility, one can define the term as representing According to Grenberg (2005) who explores the ways in which Kant discussed humility, the term represents the perspective that an individual takes about themselves in comparison to their commitment to moral values and principles.

In other words, humility means that what one does is measured against what one believes, knowing that as a human, one will never fully achieve that infinite state of grace that is defined by those moral values. Humility helps an individual to accept their own limitations, finding a substantive measure of balance which can then be extended to understand the limitations of others. Khalsa (2009) defines humility as the solid foundation of an “authentically spiritual, healthy, and whole human being” (210).

The state of humility is founded in a sense of realism, created from the perspective of openness to both the virtues and the failures that reside within everyone. Humility can be a very difficult state to define. Everts (2009) suggests that one of the ways that to examine the concept of humility is to look at what does not define it. Humility is not a virtue that is easily defined by American ideals and standards of cultural beliefs about life. Vanity, presumption, celebrity, arrogance and namedropping “are the air we breath in this country” (p. 115). Therefore, it is not an easy concept for Americans to define because it is not part of the public discourse on how heroism is defined.

Humility is not self-deprecation, it does not find definition in “feigning ignorance of accomplishments so other will loudly declare them (Everts, 2009, p. 115). An old concept that can be used to define humility is that of ‘poverty of spirit’. The only true way to understand ‘poverty of spirit’ is in seeing the richness of spirit that resides within Jesus. Within this comparison, one can find humility. It is not a state of diminishing one’s own existence, but in seeing that it is imperfect and needs daily care in order to strive towards the richness of spirit that can be seen in Christ (Everts, 2009, p. 116). Newman (1991) discusses a different aspect of humility.

While he acknowledges that humility has been widely discussed, he frames an argument that it has been overemphasized as important. He states that the emphasis on humility takes away from the empowerment that religious spiritual experience can give to a person. The elevated states that are derived from the intellectual love of God can be subverted by the application of humility to them. Newman (1991) quotes Ludwig Feuerbach as saying that “Christian humility is an inverted arrogance; the believer feels himself preeminent, though as a result of grace rather than his own striving” (p. 81). However, Newman (1991) still believes that there is virtue in humility .

That the humble person will experience acceptance of themselves, their nature accepted for its flaws rather than denied because of them. He states that “