Whether Pride Is a Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that pride is not a sin. For no sin is the
object of God's promise. For God's promises refer to what He will do;
and He is not the author of sin. Now pride is numbered among the
Divine promises: for it is written (Isa. 60:15): "I will make thee to
be an everlasting pride [Douay: 'glory'], a joy unto generation and
generation." Therefore pride is not a sin.
Obj. 2: Further, it is not a sin to wish to be like unto God: for
every creature has a natural desire for this; and especially does
this become the rational creature which is made to God's image and
likeness. Now it is said in Prosper's Lib. Sent. 294, that "pride is
love of one's own excellence, whereby one is likened to God who is
supremely excellent." Hence Augustine says (Confess. ii, 6): "Pride
imitates exaltedness; whereas Thou alone art God exalted over all."
Therefore pride is not a sin.
Obj. 3: Further, a sin is opposed not only to a virtue but also to a
contrary vice, as the Philosopher states (Ethic. ii, 8). But no vice
is found to be opposed to pride. Therefore pride is not a sin.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Tob. 4:14): "Never suffer pride to
reign in thy mind or in thy words."
_I answer that,_ Pride (_superbia_) is so called because a man
thereby aims higher (_supra_) than he is; wherefore Isidore says
(Etym. x): "A man is said to be proud, because he wishes to appear
above (super) what he really is"; for he who wishes to overstep
beyond what he is, is proud. Now right reason requires that every
man's will should tend to that which is proportionate to him.
Therefore it is evident that pride denotes something opposed to right
reason, and this shows it to have the character of sin, because
according to Dionysius (Div. Nom. iv, 4), "the soul's evil is to be
opposed to reason." Therefore it is evident that pride is a sin.
Reply Obj. 1: Pride (_superbia_) may be understood in two ways.
First, as overpassing (_supergreditur_) the rule of reason, and in
this sense we say that it is a sin. Secondly, it may simply
denominate "super-abundance"; in which sense any super-abundant thing
may be called pride: and it is thus that God promises pride as
significant of super-abundant good. Hence a gloss of Jerome on the
same passage (Isa. 61:6) says that "there is a good and an evil
pride"; or "a sinful pride which God resists, and a pride that
denotes the glory which He bestows."
It may also be replied that pride there signifies abundance of those
things in which men may take pride.
Reply Obj. 2: Reason has the direction of those things for which man
has a natural appetite; so that if the appetite wander from the rule
of reason, whether by excess or by default, it will be sinful, as is
the case with the appetite for food which man desires naturally. Now
pride is the appetite for excellence in excess of right reason.
Wherefore Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiv, 13) that pride is the
"desire for inordinate exaltation": and hence it is that, as he
asserts (De Civ. Dei xiv, 13; xix, 12), "pride imitates God
inordinately: for it hath equality of fellowship under Him, and
wishes to usurp His dominion over our fellow-creatures."
Reply Obj. 3: Pride is directly opposed to the virtue of humility,
which, in a way, is concerned about the same matter as magnanimity,
as stated above (Q. 161, A. 1, ad 3). Hence the vice opposed to pride
by default is akin to the vice of pusillanimity, which is opposed by
default to magnanimity. For just as it belongs to magnanimity to urge
the mind to great things against despair, so it belongs to humility
to withdraw the mind from the inordinate desire of great things
against presumption. Now pusillanimity, if we take it for a
deficiency in pursuing great things, is properly opposed to
magnanimity by default; but if we take it for the mind's attachment
to things beneath what is becoming to a man, it is opposed to
humility by default; since each proceeds from a smallness of mind. In
the same way, on the other hand, pride may be opposed by excess, both
to magnanimity and humility, from different points of view: to
humility, inasmuch as it scorns subjection, to magnanimity, inasmuch
as it tends to great things inordinately. Since, however, pride
implies a certain elation, it is more directly opposed to humility,
even as pusillanimity, which denotes littleness of soul in tending
towards great things, is more directly opposed to magnanimity.
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