When was my last (and first) Junto post? I don't want to look.....hmmmm.....how'd that happen? Well, I didn't forget about it....I just, uh, put if off. :-)
So in order to be able to write this post, I decided to skip ahead in the book to the more "practical" chapters towards the end. I'll go back to the beginning after that. I found out that Mary Wallstonecroft isn't the easiest to understand, (grin) so I thought that if I go ahead to the less philosophical chapters, I'll get used to her style of writing. I know that's breaking all the book-reading rules, which I usually slavishly follow, but I think this is an ok exception. :D
I'll probably break this chapter - on modesty - up into 2 parts because after merely reading several pages into it, I already found a lot to talk about.
I disagree with Wollstonecraft's respective definitions of modesty and humility: Humility, she says, is "a kind of self-abasement," something weak; Modesty is "that soberness of mind which teaches a man not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think." The thing is, we as Christians should, in a sense, recognize our sinfullness, and dwell on Christ's righteousness. We ought to have a degree of self-abasement so that we can appreciate what
Christ has done for us.
One of the most interesting arguments she makes is that modesty comes hand in hand with mental cultivation. The more educated you are, the more modest you will be. This is because those whose minds are taught to think rationally will therefore resist the irrationality of pride. But the Bible doesn't command just the intelligent Christians to be modest. Modesty is a moral virtue, not a mental virtue. It doesn't take great wisdom (in the worldy sense) to be modest. It takes a desire to be more like Christ.
So that's it for now. I'll really try to get a Junto post out each week from now on. :-)
I disagree with Wollstonecraft's respective definitions of modesty and humility: Humility, she says, is "a kind of self-abasement," something weak; Modesty is "that soberness of mind which teaches a man not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think." The thing is, we as Christians should, in a sense, recognize our sinfullness, and dwell on Christ's righteousness. We ought to have a degree of self-abasement so that we can appreciate what
Christ has done for us.
One of the most interesting arguments she makes is that modesty comes hand in hand with mental cultivation. The more educated you are, the more modest you will be. This is because those whose minds are taught to think rationally will therefore resist the irrationality of pride. But the Bible doesn't command just the intelligent Christians to be modest. Modesty is a moral virtue, not a mental virtue. It doesn't take great wisdom (in the worldy sense) to be modest. It takes a desire to be more like Christ.
So that's it for now. I'll really try to get a Junto post out each week from now on. :-)
Hey Sarah- good post! Hey I've found that if you take notes as you go along on anything interesting that you read, it makes it a lot easier to understand, make it stick in your mind, and when you sit down to blog, you can just refer back to your notes instead of flipping through the book finding something to write about.
ReplyDeleteBut good job! I really like how you say that "Modesty is a moral virtue, not a mental virtue." She seems to repeatedly say that only when you are educated and independent, can you have morals and be a good Christian person.
Also, I was thinking... do you want to just pick out a few more chapters to read and blog about? I'm thinking that reading this whole thing is very unecessary because she keeps repeating the same things over and over. Also I'm anxious to get to Mere Christianity! :) So lets just pick out like 3 or 4 more chapters to read together, talk about them, and blog about them. How does that sound?