Abstract
Leadership and theology are important conversation partners. Theology is the study of God, with implications for everything including leadership. Theology as a discipline helps to unearth uncritical theology that may be formed in leaders or leadership systems. Leadership can remind theologians that leadership phenomena of following, systems, and teamwork are at play in multiple contexts. Because leadership seeks to learn from various disciplines, theology is another field that can contribute. Conversation presents an important practice because it does not deny beliefs and values, but affirms humility and mutual learning.
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Notes
- 1.
The question was used a decade ago by Christian philosopher and theologian James K.A. Smith to introduce a new series, the Church and Postmodern Culture Series, which would introduce readers to postmodern philosophy, based mainly in Europe, in a nontechnical way and illustrate postmodern philosophy’s application for church communities. Fittingly, Smith shifted the question: “What has Paris to do with Jerusalem?” (Smith 2006, 10). This book tries to bring subjects together, as well. While at times it will utilize philosophy, it mainly is concerned with leadership and theology . And it aims to bring them together in a largely nontechnical way.
- 2.
I can’t spell out my entire theology here and certainly some Christians will disagree with it, but I want to be upfront so that my claims are understood not to be made blindly or assuming that everyone agrees, but that I am self-aware.
- 3.
Some missional theologians and scholars are even reclaiming space for the act of God in the study of history. (See Noll 2014, 99–108.) In a Christian worldview, at least some successful leadership not only may, but must be attributed to divine intervention and specific aide.
- 4.
For a deeper theological investigation, see O’Donovan (1994).
- 5.
Karl Barth speaks of this same idea in an address given at the meeting of the “Friends of the Christian World.” He states that the people of church “do not need us [ministers of the Word] to help them live, but seem rather to need us to help them die” (1957, 188).
- 6.
These are a few of the different angles of study offered on the website for Leadership Quarterly. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-leadership-quarterly/. Accessed September 7, 2017.
- 7.
There are various ways to “do theology ,” including systematic theology , which analyzes different teachings (doctrines) in light of other teachings, presenting conclusions in orderly, consistent manners. In this book, we will delve into a certain kind of theology , biblical theology , which involves the analysis of texts from the Bible for what they reveal about God and God ’s work .
- 8.
I was given the image by Professor Clinton Branscombe when talking about philosophy. “Sometimes when you’re thinking about philosophy, you scratch your head out here,” he said, scratching about 6 inches away from his head. Leadership is no different!
- 9.
See Gortner (2009), to see how human beings are made up of multiple realities and must learn to coexist alongside others of multiple realities.
- 10.
Philosopher-theologian Merold Westphal (2009, 115–118) follows the philosophy of a German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer’s (1900–2002) affirmation that texts create communities as people use them to model their conversation .
- 11.
It could be said that theology contributes to groupthink, a phenomenon where people set aside outside perspectives, assume their own moral and intellectual superiority, hide information from leaders, and refuse to voice disagreement. Of course, it can! Yet, as I recently heard from my brother Tim, the solution to groupthink is not more “silo-ed” groupthink.
- 12.
Theology is that consistent reminder that secularist paradigms can encroach, even in contexts where they might not be expected (Ramachandra 2008, 9).
- 13.
This study appreciates the relational ontology of Paul Ricoeur. Ricoeur did not believe it wise simply to set aside questions of being (ontology ), but to recognize that human beings are enmeshed in the language and experience of being. Ricoeur, leaning on theology and pointing to the self-revelation of God through history and relating to people, notes that ontology is relational rather than about essence (Wood 2005, 64–71).
- 14.
Ricoeur’s relational ontology forms two arguments for this kind of study. First, a relational ontology lends to the subject of ethics and, second, it lends to the access of one’s narrative . The second part of this book considers aspects of the Christian narrative , which the author holds as authoritative for ethics and action. Ricoeur (1992) writes, “In other words, narrative theory can genuinely mediate between description and prescription only if the broadening of the practical field and the anticipation of ethical considerations are implied in the very structure of the act of narrating” (115). In this study, the aim is not to subjectivize ethics , but to narrate them; to call others into a world by telling the story of a theological world.
- 15.
I’m leaning on Ricoeur. For Ricoeur, character is that which maintains an identity. We might say that character is what makes a self a self, even as the self changes over time. “[C]haracter assures at once…permanence in time which defines sameness…. Character is truly the ‘what’ of the ‘who’” (122).
- 16.
Ricoeur writes, “By narrating a life of which I am not the author as to its existence, I make myself its coauthor as to its meaning” (162).
- 17.
Ricoeur (1992) noted the intersection of prescription and description that narrative provides because it “function[s]…as a guiding idea for an extension of the practical sphere beyond the simple actions described in the framework of the analytic theories of action” (170).
- 18.
The conversation can be a mutual participation in social reasoning. Amaladas (2015) sees this move, from a leadership perspective, as key to overcoming private reason that never sees appropriate or significant change (76–77).
- 19.
Oliver O’Donovan (1996) notes in Desire of the Nations that appropriate ethical conduct may emerge in a moment, be preached in 20 minutes, and accounted for intellectually across decades (ix). I hope it is clear that though this book is not the work of decades—nor does it pretend to be so—that it is still appropriate to direct for momentary acts within the leadership field, aiming at that accomplishment with a more flowing, sermonic style in Chapters 5–8.
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Perry, A. (2018). Introduction: Getting Theologians and Leaders Around the Table. In: Biblical Theology for Ethical Leadership. Christian Faith Perspectives in Leadership and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75043-9_1
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