Humble Aspiration: Constructing an Early Christian Ideal

By Bernadette McNary-Zak

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814684068
• ISBN13: 9780814684061
• Release Date: May 2020
• Publisher: Liturgical Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"