Abstract
The best guide to introduce the depths of pride is probably Augustine. His writings on pride, in particular his interpretation of Adam and Eve’s fall, are, as Connolly in his study on Meister Eckhart said in intentionally casual terms, “a fascinating blend of optimism…and pessimism”; optimism referring to Augustine’s reliance on human powers; pessimism, to our dependence on lucky circumstances or the grace of God. This blend resulted in concepts and ideas still alive today: the recognition of Christian humility as what is required to transform pagan virtues into true virtue, and the distinction between good works and right faith, and between free choice (liberum arbitrium), which makes us responsible for our deliberate actions, and free will (libera voluntas), which in addition makes us perfectly sure of an action and at one with it (but we lost it, Augustine says, by the fall of man). It also resulted in a new trust in nature and our inherited properties. This trust allied to inheritance pride, pride in inherited properties, different from achievement pride, pride in what we have achieved ourselves.
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