Of the seven deadly sins, pride is the only one with a
virtuous side. It is certainly a good thing to have pride in
one's country, in one's community, in oneself. But when
taken too far, as Michael Eric Dyson shows in Pride, these
virtues become deadly sins.
Dyson, named by Ebony magazine as one of the 100 most
influential African Americans, here looks at the many
dimensions of pride. Ranging from Augustine and Aquinas,
MacIntyre and Hauerwas, to Niebuhr and King, Dyson offers a
thoughtful, multifaceted look at this "virtuous vice." He
probes the
philosophical and theological roots of pride in examining
its transformation in Western culture. Dyson discusses how
black pride keeps blacks from being degraded and excluded by
white pride, which can be invisible, unspoken, but
nonetheless very powerful. Dyson also offers a moving
glimpse into the
teachers and books that shaped his personal pride and
vocation. Dyson also looks at less savory aspects of
national pride. Since 9/11, he notes, we have had to close
ranks. But the collective embrace of all things American, to
the exclusion of anything else, has taken the place of a
much richer,
much more enduring, much more profound version of love of
country. This unchecked pride asserts the supremacy of
America above all others--elevating our national beliefs
above any moral court in the world--and attacking critics of
American foreign policy as unpatriotic and even traitorous.
Hubris, temerity, arrogance--the unquestioned presumption
that one's way of life defines how everyone else should
live--pride has many destructive manifestations. In this
engaging and energetic volume, Michael Eric Dyson, one of
the nation's foremost public intellectuals, illuminates this
many-sided human emotion, one that can be an indispensable
virtue or a deadly sin.
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