Why is humility essential to theology? Kelly Kapic and Matthew Barrett

When Jesus washes his disciples’ feet he is not just giving them a picture of the type of salvation he has come to accomplish, but he is showing them the means by which he will accomplish that salvation as well. Moreover, Jesus commands his disciples to follow his example and sacrificially serve one another in humility. Paul also makes much of the humility of Christ when he instructs the Philippians what life in the covenant community is supposed to look like. If theology is “faith seeking understanding,” how does humility connect to theology? Many great minds of the Christian faith have thought long and hard about what it means to be human and what it means to be humble because they thought that humility was absolutely essential, both to being human, and to understand what it means to be a Christian.

In this episode, Kelly Kapic joins Matthew Barrett to help us think through the beautiful limits to God’s design, explaining how humility frames who we are and how we are meant to relate to God, and to one another.

Kelly M. Kapic is Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College. He is the author of numerous books including You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News, Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering, The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics, and Sanctification: Explorations in Theology and Practice.

Matthew Barrett is the author of Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Baker). He is the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine and host of the Credo podcast. He is associate professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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