1 of 3
|
|
Susann, an exchange student from Germany, approached me recently after class. "Why are Americans so concerned about the private lives of their leaders?" she asked. Referring to a chapter we recently read about President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinski, Susann was shocked at how the president's personal life could frustrate the political agenda of his final two years in office.
Ever since the visits of Tocqueville, Europeans have been surprised by religion's influence on American public life. Indeed, religious morality provided the spine that allowed democratic muscles to stretch and grow during Jacksonian democracy. And today, faith grounds the actions and ethical deliberations of leaders throughout the halls of power.
Shortly after my conversation with Susann, I read Douglas A. Hicks' refreshing new book With God on All Sides: Leadership in a Devout and Diverse America. Hicks brings together several different streams of thought from religious studies, history, and current affairs while reflecting on the unique challenges and opportunities that leaders face today. This book—more than any other I know of—provides insight and direction on how leaders ought to respond to America's increasing religious pluralism with both openness to the perspectives of others and fealty to their own faith commitments.
As associate professor at the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies, Hicks is working with his colleagues salism. His book, then, successfully bridges two bodies of knowledge—religion and leadership studies—both of which have suffered, sometimes justifiably, from an intellectual inferiority complex.
The book's title plays off Lincoln's observation that leaders of both the Union and the Confederacy thought God was on their side. "Today we see images of God, faith, and morality on all sides of society," Hicks writes. "These images are not only political claims but also religious, cultural, and social expressions of God in our public life." As Samuel Huntington and James Davison Hunter have argued, this can lead to sharp divisions in society in which one civilization clashes with another or nations divide in all-out culture wars. Yet Hicks sees more promising possibilities in our country's growing religious and cultural pluralism. Borrowing from the Spanish, Hicks advocates for a convivencia, a more inclusive model for civic leadership that does not merely tolerate people of different faiths but positively relishes cross-cultural encounters.
Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities in Spain learned how to appreciate one another and live together under the Moorish rule of Al-Andalus from 711 to 1492. Although scholars debate how much interaction actually occurred during those eight centuries of convivencia— and how deeply tolerance was extended to the religious communities not in power—most acknowledge that the period offers a model of pluralism, however imperfect. Around the book's midpoint, Hicks urges leaders to draw on the moral resources of all religious traditions as a way of building connections across diverse groups. It is here that he comes closest to slipping into platitudes, but thankfully, he quickly directs the reader to examples where genuine convivencia has emerged. In the process, he widens the discussion to include overcoming not only religious differences but also socio-economic, political, and cultural divides.
In Indianapolis, for example, a group of civic and business leaders worked to revitalize the city's urban center after rust-belt economics and sprawling suburbia threatened what was once the hub of a city that called itself the "crossroads of America." Over the past three decades, the city has developed an urban state park, a new convention center, a downtown mall, and incentives for developers to provide housing downtown. In this and other examples, Hicks minimizes the roles of strategic philanthropy (such as how Indianapolis has uniquely benefited from the Lilly Endowment's largesse) and overlapping networks of leaders. But he rightfully emphasizes the role that guiding vision plays in precipitating cultural change, and he convincingly argues that a vision only captures our attention if it is articulated, communicated, and embodied by our leaders.
share this page
RSS Feed
