The Virtue of Pride

August 31, 2009 Posted by Roger OvertoncloseAuthor: Roger Overton Name: Roger Overton
Email: rogeroverton@hotmail.com
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About: Roger Overton is currently pursuing a Masters degree at Talbot School of Theology. He has addressed various churches, schools and youth camps throughout the United States. Roger was co-editor of The New Media Frontier (Crossway, 2008) and God and Governing (Wipf & Stock, 2009). Roger can be emailed at rogeroverton@hotmail.com.See Authors Posts (559)

Many of us have been led to believe that pride is the root of all sin, and we can find this notion in Christian literature at least as far back as St. Augustine. In essence, every sin can be reduced to some form of pride; an attempt to say to God, “I know better than you.” Augustine argued that it was pride at the core of Adam and Eve’s fall, and we can also likely agree that Satan’s fall from heaven involved pride. What I would like to suggest is not that we are wrong about sin always being a form of pride, but that this idea has distracted us from the virtuous form of pride.

I remember taking a class on Aristotle during my undergraduate studies and coming across his discussion of “magnanimity.” Unfortunately, I never really grasped what Aristotle meant by it, or why it might be worthwhile or even virtuous. Thankfully, I recently read a book that cleared it up in my mind: Introduction to Virtue Ethics by Raymond Devettere. He translates magnanimity as pride- a type of dignity or honor or confidence.

What distinguishes sinful pride from virtuous pride is whether or not the pride is appropriate and whether it is directed at private or public recognition. Would we expect a runner who sets a new world record to be ambivalent or disappointed at their accomplishment? No, they should take pride in their accomplishment. But we would say it’s the wrong sort of pride if the champion went around rubbing his record in the face of other runners. Pride is a virtue only when it is directed at personal recognition for doing well or being virtuous (e.g. we can take pride in integrity).

Devettere puts it this way in summarizing Aristotle’s view: “The virtuous person honors oneself for his or her achievement in living a good life. Private recognition replaces public recognition, self-esteem replaces public esteem… The person who has achieved the greatest of great deeds-living a truly good life-caps the virtues integral to this life with the ultimate character virtue of pride. The virtuous person had to make many good decisions to become virtuous and is rightfully proud of having succeeded in life…

Being proud of our choices and of our life when it is predominantly a life of virtue is itself an important virtuous attitude because it reinforces the other moral virtues that are making our life a success. When we take pride in our work, we do it better; when we take pride in our lives, we live them better.”

If we have a choice between taking our car to a mechanic who doesn’t care about the quality of his work and one who takes pride in it, we will likely choose the prideful mechanic. We say he has pride not because he boasts in his ability to fix cars or proclaim his excellence over all other mechanics, but because he is diligent in his work such that he is mindful that he always does his best and knows that what he does is truly good.

As a younger Christian I was always bothered by what I thought was sinful pride or arrogance in Paul’s writings. He repeatedly tells people to imitate him. He powerfully asserts his authority over others. He speaks down to others who are less mature in their faith. What I failed to see is that his pride was appropriate and virtuous, and in itself something we ought to imitate. We ought to be so successful in following Christ that it is good for others to imitate us. We ought to respect spiritual authority and affirm and use it as necessary. We ought to challenge those with less spiritual maturity, which sometimes means using harsh or difficult words.

While I’m not sure if there’s a passage in the Bible that commends virtuous pride, I do believe that Paul modeled it for us, as well as Jesus and some of the prophets. We would do well to reflect on how we can use pride to improve our work habits, relationships and faith in Christ. Know that it is a good and virtuous thing to take pride in avoiding the sin of pride and pursuing holiness in Christ.

Related posts:

1. Ownership and Virtue
2. Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
3. The Virtuous Case for Christ & C.S. Lewis
4. What is Necessary for Salvation?
5. ETS 2006- James Spiegel: The Epistemic Ramifications of Behavior
6. Is Church Necessary?

Posted in Ethics, Roger's Posts