“This book seriously explores the marginalization of humility in the modern world and in contemporary Christian life by tracing the history of humility from the Greco-Roman philosophical traditions and Judeo-Christian origins to major monastic sources of teaching on humility from the desert monks, the Rule of Benedict, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Christian de Chergé and the monks of Tibhirine. The breadth and depth of each chapter guides the reader to the significance and reevaluation that humility offers for Christian living, whether one is a monk or married person, by the transforming grace of Christ’s own kenosis. I hope that every monastic house and theological library offers this fine study of humility, in its many facets, for its readership to read, ponder, and reflect with others.” —Mary Forman, OSB Associate Professor of Monastic Studies Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary “This wonderfully clear and insightful introduction to so central a topic will be of immense help to students and scholars. At a moment when the spiritual formation of Christian theology is emerging once more as central to our understanding of Christianity, Reclaiming Humility provides a deeply thoughtful and well-researched consideration of this difficult, indispensable, sometimes dangerously misused, life-generating virtue.” —Mark A. McIntosh Professor of Christian Spirituality, Loyola University Author of Divine Teaching: An Introduction to Christian Theology “Jane Foulcher’s important book returns our attention to the neglected topic of humility. A long spiritual tradition regards this virtue as fundamental to the imitation of Christ, but moderns often disparage it as detrimental to our sense of human dignity and self-worth. Turning to such sources as the desert fathers, John Cassian, Benedict of Nursia, and Bernard of Clairvaux, Foulcher recovers the crucial links that unite Christian humility with human dignity and charity. In a stunning final chapter, Foulcher turns to the practice of humility among the monks of Tibhirine, martyred in Algeria in 1996. Foulcher concludes that a reclaimed humility is vital to the Christian way in the twenty-first century. Highly recommended.” —Ann Astell Professor of Theology, The University of Notre Dame CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES: NUMBER TWO HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE Reclaiming Humility Four Studies in the Monastic Tradition By Jane Foulcher Cistercian Publications www.cistercianpublications.org LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press Cistercian Publications Editorial Offices 161 Grosvenor Street Athens, Ohio 54701 www.cistercianpublications.org Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, © 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. © 2015 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Foulcher, Jane. Reclaiming humility : four studies in the monastic tradition / Jane Foulcher. pages cm. — (Cistercian studies series ; number two hundred fifty-five) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-87907-255-1 — ISBN 978-0-87907-728-0 (ebook) 1. Humility—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Monastic and religious life. I. Title. BV4647.H8F68 2015 241'.4—dc23 2014036385 This book is dedicated to John, Dylan, and Alice: you have been the faithful bearers of God’s grace and love in my life. Siquidem humiliatio via est ad humilitatem. Humiliation is the way to humility. —Bernard of Clairvaux, Letter 87.11 Contents Acknowledgments xiii List of Abbreviations xvii Introduction: Why Humility? xix Chapter 1: Virtue or Vice? Humility among the Virtues 1 1.1 The Lost Virtue? Humility in the Modern World 2 1.2 Humility and Virtue in the Greco-Roman World 6 1.2.1 Aristotle, Eudaimonia, and Megalopsychos 8 1.2.2 Humility as a Condition of the Socially Inferior 15 1.3 Humility in the Judeo-Christian World 17 1.4 Humility among the Virtues 24 1.5 The Return of the Virtues 30 1.6 A New Monastic Turn? 32 1.7 Conclusion 33 Chapter 2: Humility and the Self: Desert Monasticism 37 2.1 The Literature of Early Desert Monasticism 41 2.2 From the City to the Desert: Locating the Self in the World 46 2.2.1 The Desert: A Place of Humility 46 2.2.2 Abba Arsenius: The Downward Journey of the Desert 51 vii viii Reclaiming Humility 2.3 Between Heaven and Earth: Locating the Self in Eternity 59 2.3.1 Anthony and the Open Heavens 59 2.3.2 Judgment and Humility 64 2.4 Habits of the Desert: The Practice of Humility 67 2.5 Turning the Other Cheek: The Humiliated Self 75 2.6 Conclusion 84 Interlude: From the Desert to the Cloister 87 Chapter 3: Humility and Community: The Rule of Saint Benedict 95 3.1 The Rule of Saint Benedict in Context 97 3.2 Communal Eschatology: “All Together to Everlasting Life” (RB 72.12) 105 3.2.1 From a School of Suffering to a School of Love: Prologue 45-50 107 3.2.2 Together, with Ardent Love: RB 72 111 3.3 The Ladder of Humility 115 3.3.1 RB 7 and Its Pedigree: Cassian, the Master, and Benedict 116 3.3.2 The Ladder of Humility: Metaphor and Theology 122 3.3.3 The Ladder of Humility in Community 131 3.4 Practicing Humility in the Monastic Workshop 134 3.5 The Monastic Polis: A Place of Humility 136 3.6 The Yoke of Service: Humble Love and the Monastery Kitchen 144 3.7 The Bread of Obedience: The Difficult Heart of Humility 152 3.8 The Raven at the Table: Benedict Practices Humility 159 3.9 Conclusion 162 Contents ix Chapter 4: Humility and Public Life: Bernard of Clairvaux 165 4.1 The Problem with Bernard 170 4.1.1 Life and Work 170 4.1.2 Character and Cult 173 4.1.3 Writing and Rhetoric 176 4.2 Bernard and Humility: On the Steps of Humility and Pride 182 4.2.1 The Fall from Humility: A Phenomenology of Pride 184 4.2.2 Humility and Truth 187 4.2.3 The Birth of Compassion: Humility and Love 195 4.2.4 Two Types of Humility: Cold and Warm 196 4.2.5 The Humility of God 198 4.2.6 Assenting to Grace: The Practice of Obedience and the Conversion of the Will 201 4.3 Bernard and the World 204 4.3.1 The Virtuous Christian Community 205 4.3.2 Contemplation and Action 211 4.4 Humility and Public Life: On the Conduct and Office of Bishops 214 4.4.1 Monastic Virtues for Public Life: Chastity, Charity, Humility 219 4.4.2 Pride: An Interior View 222 4.4.3 Pride: An Exterior View 224 4.4.4 Obedience and Public Life 226 4.5 Practicing Humility in Public Life: The Life of Saint Malachy 229 4.6 Bernard the Juggler: Humility and Failure 231 4.7 Bernard and the Florentine Republic 235 4.8 Conclusion 239 x Reclaiming Humility Chapter 5: Humility and the Other: Christian de Chergé and the Monks of Tibhirine 243 5.1 Christian de Chergé: A Vocation to Algeria 247 5.1.1 Childhood and Education 247 5.1.2 Algeria: Formative Encounters 248 5.1.3 Ordination and Monastic Vocation 250 5.2 The Cistercians in Algeria 251 5.3 Tibhirine: An Emerging Vocation 253 5.4 Bribes d’humilité: “Scraps of Humility” 255 5.4.1 Humility: A Divine Climat 257 5.4.2 Humility and Obedience 259 5.5 The Eschatological Horizon: Hope and Humility 261 5.5.1 “I Place Death before My Eyes” 262 5.5.2 Pilgrims of the Horizon 264 5.5.3 Reimagining Benedict’s Ladder: The Chapter Talks 268 5.5.4 The Mystical Ladder of Dialogue: The Journées Romaines Lecture 272 5.6 L’AUTRE que nous attendons: “The OTHER for Whom We Wait” 274 5.6.1 Space for “the Other” 277 5.7 Practicing Humility in “the School of the Other” 280 5.7.1 Hospitality and the Monastery Wall 280 5.7.2 Monasticism and Islam 284 5.7.3 La “grisaille” du quotidian: Ordinary Time 286 5.7.4 Ora et Labora 288 5.7.5 Work: The Monastery Garden 289 5.7.6 Prayer: The Daily Office 291 5.7.7 Priants parmi d’autre priants 294 5.8 Martyrdom: The End of Humility? 298 5.8.1 Loving to the End 298 5.8.2 Humility and the Hostile Other 303 Contents xi 5.9 Conclusion 305 Conclusion: Reclaiming Humility for the Twenty-First Century 307 Reclaiming the Way of Humility 308 Reclaiming an Eschatological Orientation 310 Reclaiming the Material Face of Humility 311 Reintegrating Humility and Humiliation 313 References 317 Acknowledgments Until recently most studies of monastic theology have come from inside the monastery. In the preface of his influential and pioneering study of Benedictine monasticism, Cuthbert Butler offered his credentials: As there is a certain presumptuousness in venturing to treat an evidently complex and difficult subject, that has hitherto, perhaps, deterred explorers, it may be well for me to set forth the credentials I bring to the undertaking of the work. In the first place, then, I have been for more than forty years a Bene- dictine monk, living the life according to the Rule, and trying to shape my spiritual life and my intellectual and other activi- ties by its inspiration and teaching; and during the last twelve of these years I have had the experience of ruling as Abbot over a large monastery.1 By comparison, my credentials for the task I have set my- self seem impossibly thin.