Here we touch the most important quality of Christian leadership in the future. It is not a leadership of power and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility . . . . I, obviously, am not speaking about psychological weak leadership in which Christian leaders are simply the passive victims of the manipulations of their milieu. No, I am speaking of a leadership in which power is constantly abandoned in favor of love. It is a true spiritual leadership. Powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, they will find life and find it abundantly.
~Henri Nouwen
Christian apologists, defenders, often seek to differentiate, to absolutely distinguish, their religion from all other modes of thought, all other cultures. However, the comparative study of culture would note that this denies the many signs of interconnections. Like the signs that Christianity evolved from earlier cultures. And in this case, from the turn-the-other cheek passivity of a civil - or servant, enslaved - people.
ReplyDeleteAgainst Nouen is Nietzsche. Who called Christianity a morality derived from and for passive slaves.
ReplyDeleteOr as the Bible tells us, we must be meek, passive "servants" of a lord.