Spiritual Pride and Christian Humility: Selected Writings on True Revival, Self-Deception, and Christlike Love

Pride can hide beneath the appearance of devotion—even beneath the appearance of humility.

In Spiritual Pride and Christian Humility, Jonathan Edwards exposes how self-importance can corrupt religious zeal, spiritual experiences, and our treatment of others. He contrasts this with the humility that welcomes correction, recognizes its own need, and treats others with gentleness rather than contempt.

This collection brings together four complete selections from three of Edwards’s works:

Spiritual Pride and the Errors of Revival and Promoting Genuine Revival come from Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England. The first examines the dangers that can accompany a genuine spiritual awakening, including unnoticed pride, mistaken ideas about divine guidance, harsh judgments of others, and disorder in worship. The second explains how Christians can encourage God’s work through repentance, patience, united prayer, cooperation, and practical love—not merely increased religious activity.

True and False Humility, from Religious Affections, distinguishes being brought low by conviction of sin from having a heart genuinely humbled by grace. Edwards examines counterfeit self-denial and offers two searching tests: how we compare ourselves with other Christians, and whether we admire our own humility.

Love Produces Humility, from Charity and Its Fruits, explains what humility is and why love for God and our neighbors necessarily includes it. Looking especially to Christ’s willing humiliation and death for sinners, Edwards calls readers to abandon self-exaltation and follow their Savior’s example.

Modernized for clarity and readability without abridging the selected material, this edition preserves Edwards’s arguments, illustrations, and theological distinctions. These writings turn our attention from other people’s faults to our own hearts, calling us to deeper dependence on Christ and a life shaped by humble love.