Radical Humility. Edited by Rebecca Modrak and Jamie Vander Broek. Belt, 2021.

Radical Humility is a collection of essays purported to be on the subject of humility. Considering that a few are written by journalists and the rest by academics, it is no surprise that a majority of the writers find the subject distasteful. Academics can be among the proudest people on the planet. The next book reviewed here has some examples.

There are a couple of essays, notably “Loving Knowledge Together” and “Education is a Space to Change the World,” that speak of Socrates. Both tell us that when the Oracle said Socrates was the wisest man, he responded that his wisdom was simply admitting that he did not know very much. That is a good place to start.

Alas, most of the essays barely touch on the subject of humility or present it in a negative light. Two essays suggested that white people could not be humble. We could at the very least say that the essays used hyperbole, at the worst they showed racial prejudice themselves. What about the millions of mixed race marriages in our country alone? Lest I come across as a hypocrite, I do note that even where I went to college some of the professors were indeed humble men and women.

The honest author of “Journalism in an Era of Likes, Follows, and Shares” admits she is not crazy about most of the concepts of humility. Still, she acknowledges one near synonym of humility does describe good journalism: unobtrusiveness. The idea that journalism is balanced and objective seems to have disappeared from my local daily, so it was refreshing to at least read of the possibility of some kind of ideal reporting. A Platonic ideal? Alas, then the writer confesses she is not singing “some wistful ode to the past.” Some of her examples are not exactly free from bias, to put it mildly.

There are some helpful reflections on not coming across as a know-it-all and a few on learning from mistakes. “Epic Failures in 3-D Printing” has some clever pictures and cartoons. The reality about most of what we do ought to keep all of us humble. I am reminded of something George MacDonald wrote, which actually sounds a lot like Socrates: “But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise!” An important element of humility is an acknowledgment of truth.

There is a political tone in many of the essays. The academics and progressives authoring the majority of the selections in here seem annoyed if not offended by the concept of humility. This takes on one of two approaches: Either the old Garfield cartoon caption, “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am,” or simply putting the chip on the shoulder and saying, “Try and make me humble!” It is almost as if the book should have been called Radicals vs. Humility.

Benjamin Franklin in his Autobiography said that to be humble he had to “Imitate Jesus and Socrates.” Three essays in this book to show us some things about Socrates. For getting insight into real and radical humility, though, take another look at Gentle and Lowly. Like Socrates, Jesus is the real deal.