How did upper-class Christians understand the virtue of humility in Late Antiquity? How did their practice of humility affect their attitudes towards their social and economic inferiors? Was it more difficult for them to renounce prestige than to give up their wealth? This paper will address these questions by examining several case studies of Christian elites striving for humility, including the Cappadocian Fathers’ and Jerome’s discussions of ascetic virtues, as well as examples of successful and not-so-successful cases of episcopal humility.

Jaclyn Maxwell is an Associate Professor of History and Classics/Religious Studies at Ohio University in Athens, OH. Originally from Oklahoma, she studied History and Classics at Tulane University and then received her PhD in History with a certificate in the Program in the Ancient World from Princeton University. She is the author of Christianization and Communication: John Chrysostom and Lay Christians in Antioch (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and Simplicity and Humility in Late Antique Christian Thought: Elites and the Challenges of Apostolic Life (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Photo and Image Credit: Pio Cristiano museum via Wikicommons: By Sailko - Own work, CC BY 3.0

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