Moral Leadership for a Divided Age

P. Gushee David

Description

Great moral leaders inspire, challenge, and unite us--even in a time of deep divisions. Moral Leadership for a Divided Age explores the lives of fourteen great moral leaders and the wisdom they offer us today. Through skillful storytelling and honest appraisals of their legacies, we encounter exemplary human beings who are flawed in some ways, gifted in others, but unforgettable all the same.The authors tell the stories of remarkable leaders, including Ida B. Wells-Barnett, William Wilberforce, Harriet Tubman, Florence Nightingale, Mohandas Gandhi, Malala Yousafzai, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Oscar Romero, Pope John Paul II, Elie Wiesel, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Short biographies of each leader combine with a tour of their historical context, unique faith, and lasting legacy to paint a vivid picture of moral leadership in action. Exploring these lives makes us better leaders and people and inspires us to dare to change our world.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 16 octobre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493415441
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2018 by David P. Gushee and Colin Holtz
Published by Brazos Press
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created in 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1544-1
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Dedication
To all who struggled for justice whose names we will never know
Contents
Cover i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments ix
Moral Leaders Time Line xi
Introduction: The Study of Moral Leadership 1
1. William Wilberforce 1759–1833 15
2. Abraham Lincoln 1809–65 37
3. Florence Nightingale 1820–1910 61
4. Harriet Tubman 1822?–1913 85
5. Ida B. Wells-Barnett 1862–1931 107
6. Mohandas Gandhi 1869–1948 131
7. Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906–45 155
8. Mother Teresa 1910–97 179
9. Oscar Romero 1917–80 203
10. Nelson Mandela 1918–2013 227
11. John Paul II 1920–2005 251
12. Elie Wiesel 1928–2016 275
13. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929–68 297
14. Malala Yousafzai 1997– 321
Conclusion: Daring to Change Our World 345
Image Credits 357
Index 359
Back Cover 368
Acknowledgments
This book reflects the contributions of hundreds of students who have taken my Moral Leaders course at Union University and Mercer University since the late 1990s. I am deeply grateful to each student whose engagement has improved this book and am reminded that scholarship is always, one way or another, a group effort. Colin and I especially acknowledge the students at McAfee School of Theology of Mercer University in the fall 2017 semester who participated in the development of this book during their Moral Leaders course: Brandon Brock, Joy Bugg, Tiffany Burch, Preston Cooley, Harrison Litzell, Darrnell Long, Adam Peeler, Christiana Tsang, Peyton Wade, and Heather Wright. I offer my profound gratitude to my coauthor, Colin Holtz, who has transitioned from student to colleague through his amazing work on this book. There’s no going back now! Above all, I thank the God who called, inspired, and sustained the women and men we profile in this book.
David Gushee
I would not be in a position to write these words without the love and support of my family, they have been there for me in good times and bad. I thank God for pouring out undeserved blessings and delivering me time and again. I owe my friends and family at McAfee School of Theology, CenterForm, and Commonwealth Baptist Church a big thank you for their much-needed encouragement during the writing process. Finally, I would especially like to thank David Gushee, a mentor and friend, for offering me the opportunity to explore and be inspired by these astonishing lives.
Colin Holtz
Moral Leaders Time Line
1759 (Aug. 24 ): William Wilberforce born.
1807: British Parliament votes to abolish slave trade.
1809 (Feb. 12): Abraham Lincoln born.
1820 (May 12): Florence Nightingale born.
1822?: Harriet Tubman born.
1833 (July 26): British Parliament emancipates all slaves.
1833 (July 29): William Wilberforce dies.
1849 (fall ): Tubman escapes slavery.
1850–59: Tubman shepherds slaves to freedom.
1854–56 : Nightingale serves as nurse in Crimean War.
1860: Lincoln elected president of the United States.
1861: US Civil War begins; Nightingale advises army hospital.
1862 (July 16): Ida B. Wells born.
1862: Tubman begins Civil War service as nurse and spy.
1863: Emancipation Proclamation.
1864: Lincoln reelected president.
1865 (Apr . 14): Abraham Lincoln shot; dies April 15.
1865 (Dec. 18 ): Thirteenth Amendment, barring slavery, takes effect.
1869 (Oct. 2): Mohandas Gandhi born.
1884: Wells begins writing for newspapers.
1892: Wells begins campaign against lynching.
1893: Gandhi begins campaigning in South Africa.
1906 (Feb. 4): Dietrich Bonhoeffer born.
1910: Wells-Barnett helps found NAACP.
1910 (Aug. 13): Florence Nightingale dies.
1910 (Aug. 26): Mother Teresa born.
1913 (Mar. 10): Harriet Tubman dies.
1914–18: World War I.
1915: Gandhi returns to India from South Africa.
1917 (Aug. 15): Oscar Romero born.
1918 (July 18): Nelson Mandela born.
1920 (May 18): Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) born.
1928 (Sept. 30): Elie Wiesel born.
1929: Mother Teresa arrives in India.
1929 (Jan. 15 ): Martin Luther King Jr. born.
1930 (Mar. 12): Gandhi leads Salt March.
1931 (Mar. 25): Ida B. Wells-Barnett dies.
1933: Hitler consolidates control of Germany.
1938 (Nov. 9–10): Kristallnacht pogrom amid rising anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany.
1939: Bonhoeffer returns to Germany and joins conspiracy.
1939–45: World War II.
1940: Nazis construct concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1941: Germany begins implementation of “Final Solution.”
1943: Bonhoeffer arrested.
1944 (May): Wiesel family deported to Auschwitz; several killed.
1945 (Feb.): Wiesel and Bonhoeffer at Buchenwald concentration camp.
1945 (Apr. 9): Dietrich Bonhoeffer hanged.
1945 (Apr. 30): Hitler commits suicide.
1946: Mass killings in conflicts between Indian Muslims and Hindus.
1946 (Sept. 10 ): Mother Teresa called to serve poorest of the poor.
1946 (Nov. 1): Wojtyla ordained.
1947 (Aug. 15): Indian independence and birth of Pakistan.
1948 (Jan. 30): Mohandas Gandhi assassinated.
1948 : Apartheid regime begins in South Africa.
1955: Montgomery bus boycott begins.
1958: Wiesel publishes Night .
1962–65: Second Vatican Council.
1963 (Aug. 28): King delivers “I Have a Dream” speech.
1964 : Wojtyla named archbishop of Cracow.
1964 (June 12): Mandela begins 27 years behind bars.
1964 (Dec. 10): King awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
1968 (Apr. 4): Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
1977: Romero becomes archbishop of San Salvador.
1978: Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II.
1979: Mother Teresa awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
1980 (Mar. 24): Oscar Romero assassinated.
1986: Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1989–91: Communist regimes collapse across Europe.
1990 (Feb. 11): Mandela released from jail.
1993: Mandela wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1994: Mandela becomes president of South Africa.
1997 (July 12): Malala Yousafzai born.
1997 (Sept. 5): Mother Teresa dies.
2005 (Apr. 2): Pope John Paul II dies.
2012 (Oct. 9): Yousafzai shot in the head by the Taliban.
2013 (Dec. 5): Nelson Mandela dies.
2014 (Oct. 10): Yousafzai awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
2016 (July 2): Elie Wiesel dies.
Introduction
The Study of Moral Leadership
In early January 1920, twelve men sat in jail, condemned to die. A few months before, they and other poor black tenant farmers from Elaine, Arkansas, had met at a local church to organize against the outrageously low prices for cotton the white owners of their land insisted upon. The farmers posted armed guards outside for fear of retaliation. As they assembled that night, there was a rapid burst of gunshots. No one knows who fired first, but a local white man lay dead in the aftermath.
The horrific backlash arrived the next day. In one of the bloodier events in US history, gangs of furious whites, stoked by false rumors of unprovoked murder and an impending black uprising, burned the church to the ground, confiscated property, and attacked, beat, arrested, and murdered scores of people. In the aftermath, dozens of sharecroppers faced time in prison. A jury sentenced twelve of them—accused of murder despite scant evidence—to die in the electric chair after only six minutes of deliberation.
Soon, word reached Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the famous journalist and activist who had spent decades investigating injustices like these in the racist Jim Crow South. She traveled to Arkansas and snuck into the jail where the men were held. For two hours, she recorded their testimony. Then she stood up and spoke:
I have been listening to you for nearly two hours. You have talked and sung and prayed about dying, and forgiving your enemies, and of feeling sure you are going to be received in the New Jerusalem. . . . But why don’t you pray to live and ask to be freed? Let all your songs and prayers hereafter be songs of faith and hope that God will set you free. Quit talking about dying; if you believe your God is all powerful, believe he is powerful enough to open these prison doors, and say so. . . . Pray to live and believe you are going to get out. 1
In the wake of her visit, Wells-Barnett published a pamphlet, The Arkansas Race Riot , detailing the outrage. Lawyers from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which she had helped found, took up the cause. Those twelve men had been certain they were going to die until Wells-Barnett told them to pray to God that they might live. They did their part, and Wells-Barnett did hers. By 1925 every one of them had been freed.
MORAL LEADERSHIP FOR A DIVIDED AGE
Stories like this are unforgettable, and their leading characters stay in our minds long after the details have faded. Of all the billions of people who have lived on our planet, there are certain individuals we cannot forget. A certain quality about them grasps us, enthralls us, and refuses to let us go. This is a book about those individuals. It is a book about great moral leaders—people who did not just accrue fantastic wealth, power, or fame but in some way left the world a better place. We measure their impact not by military victories or economic advances, technological leaps or