Humility and Spirituality: New Directions in Interdisciplinary Research

Abstract

Humility and Spirituality:New Directions in Interdisciplinary Research Claire E. Wolfteich (bio), Steven J. Sandage (bio), James Tomlinson (bio), Jonathan Mettasophia (bio), and Diana Ventura (bio) introduction Even a cursory reading of classical texts in the study of Christian spirituality reveals numerous mentions of humility, its value for the spiritual life, and ways in which it might be cultivated. In some traditions, such as the desert fathers and mothers, it is one of the crowning virtues of the ascetic life. One of the sayings of Abba Antony reads, "'I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, 'What can get through from such snares?' Then I heard a voice saying to me, 'Humility.'"1 Elsewhere, a saying attributed to Amma Theodora notes, "that neither asceticism, nor vigils nor any kind of suffering are able to save, only true humility can do that."2 And Abba John places humility as the highest of the virtues: "Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues."3 Humility is central to the desert ascetic tradition and, indeed, quite integral to Christian spiritual traditions more broadly.4 As Wendy Wright and Joseph Power note: "Humility as the primary human disposition that allows for the entry of God in the soul is central to the thought of Augustine, Benedict, Bernard, Teresa, and innumerable other Christian spiritual writers."5 Yet what is known about humility in contemporary understanding and practice? How might such ancient Christian spiritual traditions be bridged with current research on the topic of humility, which is increasingly the subject of empirical psychological study? This article first illustrates the significance of the topic of humility within Christian spirituality through brief discussions of humility in the writing of several significant authors, including Cassian, Benedict, Julian of Norwich, and Teresa of Avila. These key figures in the history of Christian spirituality, selected from among many possible writers who expound upon the virtue of humility, enable us to explore some features of classical discussions of humility. The discussion also provides an overview of some of the recent psychological research on humility that forms the backdrop to a contemporary empirical research project on humility, spirituality, and religious leadership being conducted jointly by a team of clinical psychologists [End Page 102] Click for larger view View full resolution Photo Courtesy of Zoe Holling on Unsplash. [End Page 103] and theologians. This project includes a mixed-methods design and employs both a battery of quantitative measures of humility and a series of qualitative items that provide contextual information and phenomenological description of some of the unique understandings of humility across religious traditions. Also examined are challenges to humility identified by religious leaders, and spiritual and religious practices leaders use to cultivate or maintain humility.6 This growing body of research on humility is studied in order to assess contributions to knowledge about humility as a feature of Christian spirituality and implications for practices such as spiritual formation, spiritual direction, and therapeutic intervention. The research also provides a way to reflect broadly upon the current state of the interdisciplinary character of spirituality studies. Despite the fact that the emergence of spirituality studies as an academic discipline has gone hand in hand with assertions of the highly interdisciplinary nature of the field, there remains a kind of "siloing" of approaches to the study of spirituality. Theological and historical-contextual scholarship continues to dominate groups such as the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, while social scientific research on spirituality features more prominently in conferences of organizations such as the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, which feature multiple sessions on spirituality, or the American Psychological Association, which, includes a division in psychology, religion, and spirituality and publishes a related journal.7 Kristy Nabhan-Warren has described resistance to qualitative and quantitative methods among some spirituality scholars: "… a qualitative ethnographic approach to the study of Christian spirituality – not to mention a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative research – is viewed with a bit of suspicion."8 So too Norwegian practical theologian Tone Stangeland Kaufman has called for greater use of ethnographic methods in the study of Christian spirituality.9 This article aims in...