Summary
Humilitas by John Dickson is not some
great treatise on humility. It is a rather short work that borrows a lot from
other sources, but Dickson tells you that from the onset. John Dickson is a man
of many talents according to the dust jacket of the book; he is a PhD in
history, he was a musician, and he is also a pastor at a church in Australia
where he is from. As stated before this
is not an extremely large book it comes in under 200 pages of material.
With his background in history
it is no wonder that the majority of this book is committed to the historical
background of humility and the role it has played in different societies. There
is a shift not only in history, but also in the book that takes place with
Christ. Before Christ most cultures were based on the shame-honor system, even
things in his own Jewish community were set up that way. It is in the context
of this society that Christ’s new teaching made him a radical. One aspect of
the book that helped to drive home the point Dickson was attempting to make was
his use of stories actually depicting acts of humility; in particular the story
of Joe Louis. In short this book can be
broken up into three sections, the history of humility before Christ, after
Jesus, and application.
Critique
Dickson’s
book as a whole was okay, it was not something that I was blown away by, nor
was it something that felt like a complete waste of time.
Throughout the book you will find some
nuggets of value such as, “One of the keys to developing humility is spending
more time with friends who speak plainly.”
There was not much I took away from chapter one, however in the next chapter on
leadership I did manage to glean more. He makes a good point in distinguishing
art from science when he says, “Leadership is more of an art than a science.
This is why there are as many leadership styles, books and courses as there are
forms of art.”
He
goes on to make several other important observations about leadership and how
being a good performer will not make you a good leader, while a good leader
always did well in some aspect of the work before becoming a leader.
There is one thing I was not crazy about when dealing with this chapter it felt
disjointed being in a book on humility, because it seemed like it took forever
to get to the topic and then covered it poorly.
In his next
chapter subtitled common sense he has a superb point that is often over looked
not only in the corporate setting but in other areas such as the home and
church. He says, “Humbly acknowledging limitations and refusing to engage in
competency extrapolation are not signs of weakness. The demonstrate realism and
are therefore strengths.”
In chapter four he points out that in
some cultures that humility was not a virtue, it was so ill received that on a
list of over 147 virtues it did even make the list.
It was thought of so lowly that, “humility was the stuff of slaves, not
respected rabbis.”
He makes
the point about respect making a huge difference on how we receive things said
by people.
For instance, “The same words
my be used by both of us; the same evidence may be presented; but, somehow, the
words of the trusted friend are much more compelling.”
Some would say that by holding to a solid set of convictions and being
unwilling to yield makes us intolerant and unable to be humble. Dickson
suggest, “Humility applied to convictions does not mean believing things any
less; it means treating those who hold contrary beliefs with respect and
friendship.”
In
building humility we should keep examples worth following before us, “if we are
shaped by what we admire, finding admirable examples and studying them will go
a long way toward forming humility in us.”
Evaluation
It would be
hard for me to recommend this book to
anyone, unless they were looking for a historical perspective of humility.
While this book is used in class on preventing ministry failure I saw very
little in this book that was an encouragement. From what I have read there is a
book of similar size by C.J. Mahaney entitled Humility that would be far more appropriate on the topic. Dickson’s
work is a good historical approach, but as far as practical it misses the mark.
I would
like to have seen more of a biblical perspective on the topic of humility. He
gives us a brief understanding of the humility of Christ, and it stops short. From
the vantage point of a pastor or elder in the church there is not much here to
take away from this book to be of any benefit to the body, it could very well
be applied to the secular context and you would not be able to make any major
distinguishing comments between who the intended recipients are supposed to be.
Was this book written for the body of Christ or the rest of the world? While it
is published by Zondervan a prominent name in Christian publishing, its listing
is under business and economics proving that it is not truly set for Christian
ministry or living. In my opinion it is
still miscategorized and should be under history. So in the end I would not recommend this work
for use in the body in any capacity.
Bibliography
Dickson,
John. Humilitas: A lost key to life, love, and leadership. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.
John Dickson, Humilitas: A lost key to life, love, and
leadership. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011)12.
