Humility as the Premise of the Perfect Following of Christ

This work on a field of Theological Ethics concerns the subject of humility, an important Christian virtue, and researches its significance for Christian practice and spiritual life in general. According to Biblical studies humility as a willing self-humiliation belongs to the essential characteristic of God's incarnation of Christ to the world and of the whole of Jesus' life, his death on the cross included. From this point of view humility as self-transcendence proves to be the premise of the ideal of following Christ. The author therefore perceives the issue of humility as a challenge for daily Christian practice. The work also points out the universal value of humility and it offers the authors' own view on humility as one of the most important aspects of interfaith and intercultural dialogue - and of dialogue per se. The theme embodies a discourse on psychology, which allows an interdisciplinary discussion. Besides the Bible the main sources of this presented thesis are writings of Christian mystics, especially Thomas A Kempis, and works of theologians - Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Jan Heller. Emphasizing the universal feature of humility, concrete examples of "living humility" are approached through the life and writings of personalities from four different spiritual..