In Roman Catholic theology, the sin of Pride is the assertion of the self to a point of excess. It is an antisocial action, and an irreligious one. As the motivating vice that led Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, Pride is considered by Catholics to be the original and most serious of the seven ‘deadly’ sins. St. Augustine of Hippo (254-430 CE) wrote that “Pride is the commencement of all sin…for the serpent, in fact, only sought for the door of pride whereby to enter when he said, ‘Ye shall be as gods.’” The seven ‘deadly’ or cardinal sins are a classification and ranking of human vices that entered Catholic teaching through Pope Gregory I in the late sixth century, based on an earlier list of wicked human passions drawn up by the Greek monastic theologian Evagrius of Pontus.
Early conceptualizations of Pride are less condemnatory than in the Roman Catholic tradition. For Aristotle, Pride (megalopsuchia, variously translated as “proper pride”, “greatness of the soul”, or “magnanimity”) is “a sort of crown of the virtues…for it is impossible without nobility and goodness of character.” Unlike Gregory I, Aristotle separates this kind of Pride from Hubris, wherein “naive men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater.”
The books of the Old Testament, written at least 300 years before Aristotle, are replete with warnings against hubristic self-aggrandisement. Proverbs 16:18 says that “Pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall”, and in Isaiah 2:11, a day will come when “The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted.” Ecclesiasticus 10:12-13 says that “the beginning of Pride is when one departs from God, and his heart is turned away from his Maker. For Pride is the beginning of sin, and he that has it shall pour out abomination.” Old Testament kings Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30), Belshazzar (Daniel 5:18-23), and Sennacherib of Assyria (Isaiah 10:13-14) are driven by Pride to make hubristic claims about their power on earth, and are swiftly brought low by God.
The seven deadly sins may be countered by their seven corresponding virtues. The corresponding virtue to Pride is Humility: the Humble are those who view themselves with ‘sober judgment’ (Romans 12.3). Matthew writes ‘Blessed are the Humble, for they shall inherit the earth.’ (Matthew 5:5). In the New Testament, Humility is preached throughout the four Gospels, most notably in Jesus’ washing of the Disciple’s feet during the Last Supper (John 13:12-17). This foot-washing rite was revised and inserted into the Catholic mass by Pope Pius XII in 1955, and continues today in the Catholic tradition of Maundy Thursday of Holy Week. Since 2013, Pope Francis has broken from tradition by washing the feet of Muslim refugees and disabled and incarcerated people on Maundy Thursday.
C.S. Lewis wrote that, “In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all.”
In Christian teaching, Certitude is the total acceptance of the truth of a situation so as to exclude all doubt. Certitude cannot exist where there is ignorance, opinion, or doubt. For Christians today, fundamentalist Certitude is not necessarily taught as desirable. Doubt has a role to play in the formation of faith. Pastor Brian Zahnd wrote in 2016:
“Certitude is a poor substitute for authentic faith. But certitude is popular; it’s popular because it’s easy. No wrestling with doubt, no dark night of the soul, no costly agonizing over the matter, no testing yourself with hard questions.”
Many key figures in the Bible do not operate from a place of spiritual Certitude. In the Book of Job, Job questions God when he believes himself to have been unjustly treated. Thomas the Apostle famously doubts the miracle of Christ’s resurrection (John 20:24-29), but comes to believe after personal inquiry.
In John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, both Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius extoll the necessary role of doubt in the formation of a robust faith. Flynn’s sermon proposes that “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” And Sister Aloysius’s inquiry into Flynn’s behaviour begins with the seeds of doubt, but is driven and bolstered by a kind of burgeoning Certitude that exists independent of the hard evidence she seeks. The necessary difficulty that comes with the pursuit of certainty, described by Zahnd, is evident in her remarks to Sister James: “Maybe we’re not supposed to sleep so well.”
— John King