Humble Morality
by S. M. Hutchens
Books like Tosi and Warmke's Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk (Oxford, 2020) point toward the irrepressibly moral nature of man. He may reject good morals for bad ones, but morals he will always have to justify himself and present himself as superior to others, just as homo religiosus will always have religion, a transcendental "ultimate concern" to replace the God he has denied. The avoidance of moral grandstanding characteristic of humility is one of the great spiritual disciplines—a constant and self-imposed remembrance that no sinner can claim moral leverage over any other, which thus points to Christ. Evangelization is indeed, as it has been said, one beggar telling another where to find bread.
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
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