Meekness

Meekness is a possible attribute of human nature and behavior. It has been defined several ways: righteous, humble, teachable, and patient under suffering, long suffering^[1] willing to follow gospel teachings; an attribute of a true disciple.^[2][3]

Meekness has been contrasted with humility as referring to behaviour towards others, where humbleness refers to an attitude towards oneself^[4] - meekness meaning restraining one's own power,^[5] so as to allow room for others.^[6]

Christianity

• The Israelite Apostle Paul gave an example of meek behavior when writing to Timothy: "The servant of the Lord must be gentle, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose." (2 Tim. 2:24–25)
• Sir Thomas Browne explained: "Meekness takes injuries like pills, not chewing, but swallowing them down." This indicates that meekness allows a person to overlook or forgive perceived insults or offenses.^[7]
• The meek feature in the Beatitudes, and were linked thereby to the classical virtue of magnanimity by Aquinas.^[8]

The Church of Jesus Christ/Mormonism

• A meek behavior is presented as being opposite to "the natural man" (i.e. one who acts strictly according to desires of the body): 'Put off the natural man and become meek.' (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:19), and in 3 Nephi 12:5 when Jesus Christ appears to the people of ancient america after his Ascension to Heaven and teaches them the beatitudes.

Criticism

• Beethoven rejected meekness and equality in favor of cultural elitism: “Power is the moral principle of those who excel others”.^[9]
• Nietzsche rejected Christian meekness as part of a parasitic revolt by the low against the lofty, the manly, and the high.^[10]

Other traditions

• Buddhism, like Christianity, strongly valued meekness^[11] - the Buddha himself (in an earlier life) featuring as the 'Preacher of Meekness' who patiently had his limbs lopped off without complaining by a jealous king.^[12]
• Taoism valorised the qualities of submission and non-contention.^[13]

Animal analogues

• The classical Greek word used to translate meekness was that for a horse that had been tamed and bridled.^[14]
• The buffalo was to the Buddhists a lesson in meekness.^[15]

Literary examples

• Meekness is used to characterise the nature of Tess in Tess of the D'Urbervilles.^[16]
• The Heroine of Possession: A Romance judges the hero as "a gentle and unthreatening being. Meek, she thought drowsily, turning out the light. Meek."^[17]

See also

• Gandhi
• Herd animal
• Passive resistance
• Patient Griselda
• Quakers
• Seven virtues
• Uriah Heap

References

1. The Free Dictionary, Meekness
2. LDS.org Guide to the Scriptures, meekness
3. Neal A. Maxwell, Meekness -- A Dimension of True Discipleship, 1982
4. E. A. Cochran, Receptive Human Virtues (2011) p. 82
5. Matthew (1806). A Discourse Concerning Meekness. Hilliard
6. K. D. Bassett, Doctrinal Insight to the Book of Mormon (2008) p. 197
7. The Free Dictionary, Usages of meekness
8. C. S. Titus, Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude (2006) p. 320
9. Quoted in Maynard Solomon, Beethoven Essays (1988) p. 204
10. W. Kaufman ed., The Portable Nietzsche (1987) p. 626-30
11. J. B. Carman, Majesty and Meekness (1994) p. 124
12. D. Schlinghoff, Studies in the Ajanta Paintings (1987) p. 219
13. D. C. Lau ed., Lao Tzu (1963) p. 25-9
14. J. K. Bergland, The Journeys of Robert Williams ( 2010) p. 53
15. D. Schlinghoff, Studies in the Ajanta Paintings (1987) p. 144
16. H. Bloom, Thomas Hardy (2010) p. 84
17. A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance (1991) p. 141