Religion/Spirituality and the Twin Virtues of Humility and Gratitude

Abstract In this chapter, we review the literature on religion/spirituality (R/S) and the twin virtues of humility and gratitude. We focused on articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals and included both a measure of religion/spirituality and humility or gratitude. We focus our review by exploring two questions: (1) how is R/S associated with humility and gratitude, and (2) how might humility and gratitude work in tandem (consistent with the social oil hypothesis of humility)? We found cross-sectional evidence linking R/S and humility and gratitude. Additional work is needed to test the recent theory on how humility and gratitude may work together to promote and protect strong relationships, especially at the collective level. We suggest ways to catalyze research in this area, including the potential for future work aligning humility and gratitude. We also identify implications for practice both in clinical settings and religious communities.