Humble Aspiration

What does it mean to be humble like Christ? In this book, Bernadette McNary-Zak explores various concepts of Christian humility in late antiquity. To help the reader deepen their understanding of Christian humility, McNary-Zak takes a close look at some of the ways different types of humility operated as a relational value in specific contexts involving ascetic women. With this approach, the author shows how, at the very margins of a male-dominated culture, the ascetic woman represented a form of renunciation of self that enabled her to function as a symbol of Christian humility for females and males alike. A life that is both affirmative of biblical precedent and subversive of societal norms thereby becomes a life lived in deliberate aspiration toward an unrealized eschatology.

Bernadette McNary-Zak, PhD, is associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the author of several books including Useful Servanthood: A Study of Spiritual Formation in the Writings of Abba Ammonas (Cistercian Publications, 2010). Other publications include two co-edited books and a number of articles in her areas of research.