{
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  "oid": 164968,
  "revision": 1,
  "revision_oid": 164969,
  "work": "orthodoxy",
  "edition": "pg16769-r1",
  "title": "Humility need not mean small ambitions",
  "anchors": [
    {
      "unit": "CH03.P003",
      "oid": 41,
      "role": null,
      "edition": "pg16769-r1",
      "paragraph": "CH03.P003",
      "exact": "Humility was largely meant as a restraint upon the arrogance and infinity of the appetite of man.",
      "start": 67,
      "end": 164,
      "prefix": "ity that we are here concerned. ",
      "suffix": " He was always out-stripping his",
      "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH03.P003#char=67,164"
    }
  ],
  "body_markdown": "Aquinas offers a useful theological distinction here. In *Summa theologiae* II–II, question 161, article 1, humility restrains aspirations that exceed right reason, while magnanimity encourages the pursuit of great things against despair. The two virtues cooperate rather than cancel each other. Article 2 locates humility principally in the appetite, with knowledge of one's limitations guiding it. That is a close conceptual parallel to Chesterton's language of restrained appetite. [Aquinas, II–II, q.161, aa.1–2](https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3161.htm).\n\nThe qualification matters: Aquinas does not commend indiscriminate self-belittlement, and Chesterton explicitly limits himself to one aspect of humility. His account of enjoying enormous imaginative objects supplies a psychological extension of the distinction, rather than Aquinas's own argument. Humility can enlarge what someone attempts or appreciates without inflating that person's estimate of personal entitlement. No direct borrowing is established. The inspected translation is the English Dominican Fathers' second revised edition (1920), reproduced by New Advent; the medieval work's first complete printed edition appeared at Basel in 1485. [Translation statement](https://www.newadvent.org/summa/); [publication history](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm).",
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3161.htm",
      "title": "Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, II–II, question 161, ‘Humility’",
      "locator": "Article 1, answer and reply to objection 3; article 2, answer and reply to objection 2",
      "exact": null
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.newadvent.org/summa/",
      "title": "New Advent, Summa Theologiae edition statement",
      "locator": "Concluding edition statement: Second and Revised Edition, 1920; Fathers of the English Dominican Province",
      "exact": null
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm",
      "title": "Catholic Encyclopedia, ‘St. Thomas Aquinas’",
      "locator": "Discussion of editions of the Summa: first complete edition, Basel, 1485",
      "exact": null
    }
  ],
  "citations": [],
  "external_references": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3161.htm",
      "title": "Aquinas, II–II, q.161, aa.1–2"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.newadvent.org/summa/",
      "title": "Translation statement"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm",
      "title": "publication history"
    }
  ],
  "limits": [
    "The parallel is contextual, not a demonstrated source or claim that Chesterton is reproducing Aquinas's complete theology of humility."
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "run": "chapter-03-restart-2026-11-07",
    "paragraph_investigator": "P003",
    "task": [
      {
        "approach": "Connections across Chesterton’s works",
        "question": "How does the claim that humility enlarges enjoyment develop the earlier account of surprise and romance in Heretics?"
      },
      {
        "approach": "Theological contextualization",
        "question": "Does humility as a restraint upon appetite imply an abandonment of greatness, and how does Aquinas distinguish humility from magnanimity?"
      }
    ],
    "model": "gpt-6.1-sol"
  },
  "content_sha256": "sha256:dc10d573b771835c2e84c520f444d52d1d375de9ab8c5605a089b4a7cf1fdead",
  "created_at": "2026-11-07T16:33:54Z",
  "is_current": true,
  "url": "/a/a_d2ygd65y",
  "revision_path": "/a/a_d2ygd65y/r/1",
  "cited_by": []
}