A Primer on Pride

by David Naugle
Why does Lewis see Pride as the greatest sin, “the utmost evil,” in comparison with which “unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere fleabites”? (p. 110). How does he define Pride and its opposite, Humility? What effect does Pride have on one’s relation to other people, to oneself, and to God? What is the relationship between Pride and the other vices? Lewis cites other Christian teachers who share his perspective but does not name them. Who might he be thinking of?

Fleabites? Yes, fleabites. Other vices including unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and so on, are mere “fleabites” - tiny, little offenses in comparison to pride. Why? Lewis gives three reasons for labeling pride as the supreme defect. First, because the devil became the devil by pride. Second, because pride is the cause of every other vice. Third, because pride is the complete anti-God (and anti-others) state of mind. Pride is severely disordered love for self. Think Rabadash in The Horse and His Boy. When it comes to the vices, then, pride is at the very center. As Lewis says, it is “the essential vice, the utmost evil.”

I’m pretty sure Lewis says somewhere that pride is like bad breath: everyone knows you have it except yourself. I know for a fact he says in Mere Christianity that there is “no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves.”

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