General Introduction
– What’s not on the blog?
– Thus begins the triptych of spring 2012

New Testament Humility
– The ethics of humility
– The Golden Rule, further
– Christ’s kenosis and ours
– Greatness requires great humility
– Gregory the Great Servant

Thomist Humility
– Aristotelian balance
– Seven virtues
– The interconnectedness of virtue
– Humility as check on magnanimity

Dante’s Terrace of the Prideful
– Exemplary statues
– The triple humility of the Annunciation
– David’s humble showmanship
– Trajan as model for Christian humility
– Justice needs humility
– The trials of the proud

Nietzsche Deconstructs Humility
– Return to pagan morality
– Inversion of master and slave
– Socratic and Christian humility
– Freud’s Neurotic Humility
– Modern self-esteem

Literary Humility
– The quiet hobbit
– Whitman’s egotheism
– Rebel rebel angels join the chorus

Humility as Tool of the Powerful
– Philippians as cure
– Quiet oppression
– The example of Africa
– Thomas’ pre-solution
– What isn’t humility?
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Christian Classics, 1981. Five Volumes.

Dante. The Divine Comedy. Trans. Mark Musa. New York: Penguin, 2002. Three Volumes.

Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography. New York: Norton, 2012.

Milton, John. The Complete Poems. New York: Norton, 2004.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Trans. Adrian del Caro. New York: Cambridge UP, 2006.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. Seattle: Mariner, 2005.

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New York: Modern Library, 1993.