“Blessed are the Poor in Spirit”: Imagining Excellence Otherwise

Abstract

JESUS'S BLESSING OF the “poor in spirit,” who recognize their dependence on God, suggests that an awareness of human limitation is necessary for wise living. How can the Christian educator teach for spiritual poverty? Both Parker Palmer and Richard Kearney, from their different disciplinary and denominational perspectives, argue for the central importance of story and of developing a narrative imagination which is both an agency of moral empathy and a vehicle for making some sense of what surpasses our limits. An informal survey of some of the author's students tends to confirm that such experiences of epistemological humility are a necessary component of an education that valorizes poverty of spirit over worldly success or intellectual mastery.