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.Gregory became a great leader also because of his wide ranging interests and willingnessto develop the church in all of its aspects.For example, his name became synonymous withthe great plainsong (later known as Gregorian chant) that gave an aesthetic dimension tochurch ceremonies that had been lacking before.He encouraged monasticism as a way ofcontinually renewing the church from within since it carefully channeled the most spirituallyactive and dedicated members of the church in a productive fashion.He so believed inCatholic doctrine that he felt confident enough to send out missionaries throughout Europeto christianize the Germanic peoples living there (it was during his tenure as Pope that mostof England was converted to Catholicism by the missionary St.Augustine).His papacyhelped to lay the foundation stones of a truly universal Catholic Church, which was nowcapable of providing the necessary structure that would allow western civilization to surviveand thrive for the next thousand years.Gregory also made monumental decisions regarding Catholicism s relationship to itsEastern Orthodox cousin centered in Constantinople.He refused to be treated as an inferior GGBD161C02 GR4818/Polelle Top Margin: 5/8in Gutter Margin: OctoberReligious Leadership 61to the Byzantine emperor in religious matters.He was careful to cultivate new alliances inorder to preserve the Romano-German Christian culture growing up in the western half ofwhat had been the old Roman empire.When the Byzantines appeared less than capable ofprotecting Rome and the western church from invading groups such as the Lombards, Gre-gory was astute enough to cultivate ties with the Merovingian Franks to garner protection ofhis nascent civilization s interests.Had Gregory been a failed leader, it is quite possible thatwestern civilization may itself have experienced either disastrous destruction at the handsof the Muslims or crushing subordination to the Byzantines.That Gregory in fact turnedout to be a great leader worthy of sainthood demonstrates that he was not just a leader of achurch.He was, rather, the leader of a whole new civilization balanced at the tipping pointbetween despair and confident growth.His leadership thankfully helped channel the Westinto the latter direction.FURTHER READINGMarkus, R.A.Gregory the Great and His World.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1997.ST.PAUL: LEADER OF A NEW RELIGIONSt.Paul (fl.first century AD) was originally a Jew from Tarsus.He changed from being a persecutorof Christians into one of their leading members after experiencing a vision of Jesus on the roadto Damascus.He served the early Christian movement well by seeking out gentile converts to thenew religion.His proselytizing efforts were marked by his concern to emphasize faith in the newreligion s beliefs over adherence to traditional Jewish laws.Tradition states that he later died asa martyr in Rome ca.64 AD.The life of St.Paul illustrates the fact that some of the greatest world leaders are thosewho see themselves as servants to ideas or persons even greater than themselves.His abilityto see himself as a servant leader to Jesus empowered him to become a risk-taking leaderof the highest order.It also allowed him to arguably found a new religion that might nototherwise have succeeded.Paul is, of course, considered by most authorities to have been born Saul of Tarsus inancient Cilicia.Geography made a difference in Saul s life as the area in which he grew up wasa fairly cosmopolitan trading center within the Roman empire.He was apparently familiarwith the Greek language from a fairly young age.This background gave him insight into thelarger gentile culture around him.As a Pharisee, Saul was expected to live in close accordancewith the Mosaic law.Tradition states that as he grew to manhood, he became both a rabbiand a tentmaker.Although he never encountered Jesus in person, he and the Jewish groupswere sufficiently concerned about Jesus that many of them became active persecutors of theearly Jewish followers of Jesus.Many mainstream Jews of Saul s acquaintance, of course,could not accept that the promised Messiah would be crucified or that temple Judaism hadsomehow been superseded by the life and mission of Jesus.Tradition states that Saul had a conversion experience on the road to Damascus (wherehe was apparently going in search of Jesus followers to persecute).He was convincedfrom this experience that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.Saul now to be knownas Paul took it upon himself to prepare the peoples of the world for God s final judg-ment (which many Jews thought imminent).Paul believed that Jesus had been sacrificed GBD161C02 GR4818/Polelle Top Margin: 5/8in Gutter Margin: October 9, 200762 Leadershipfor all mankind s sins and was the vehicle for salvation and eternal life.Paul so believedin his message that he soon became a leader of the apostle community charged with thespreading of the good news of Jesus life and message.If we look closely, we can see hintsof how Paul became such an epochal leader in the Christian tradition and, indeed, inworld history as a whole.First, he showed himself to be open to transforming his corebeliefs in the face of new existential evidence (in the form of his conversion on the roadto Damascus) even if it meant coming to the conclusion that his early life and beliefswere completely wrongheaded and without foundation.Second, he made his personal con-version socially meaningful in a broader sense by having the courage of his convictionsand becoming a leader of the very movement he had been bent on persecuting only ashort time before.That he was able to work so closely with the Apostle Peter and Jesusown brother James in helping to spread the gospel testifies to his leadership abilities anddrive.Paul s ultimate leadership challenge involved the crucial issue of how the early Jesus move-ment should relate to the gentile or non-Jewish community.Many followers and persecutorsof the movement were trapped in the assumption that Jesus and his teachings could onlybe of consequence to the small local Jewish community.Paul s genius as a leader lay in hisability to transcend the initial parameters of the debate by placing Jesus in a universal con-text.For Paul, Jesus was to be seen at the very center of the relationship between mankindand the divine.Paul was willing to play for high stakes in this debate: either Jesus was atthe center of the relationship between humanity and God or he was not.In reframing thedebate, Paul was able to argue that Jewish regulations pertaining to circumcision and foodrituals should not be used to exclude gentiles from the Jesus movement.Paul was able todevelop a distinctive theology in support of such a radical notion by arguing that Jesus coremessage concerned the efficacy of faith and love above all else.The rest of Paul s life as aleader of the early Christian church was based on these simple but powerful postulates.Paul s other effective leadership skill was to use the strength of his enemy to his ownbenefit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl centka.pev.pl
.Gregory became a great leader also because of his wide ranging interests and willingnessto develop the church in all of its aspects.For example, his name became synonymous withthe great plainsong (later known as Gregorian chant) that gave an aesthetic dimension tochurch ceremonies that had been lacking before.He encouraged monasticism as a way ofcontinually renewing the church from within since it carefully channeled the most spirituallyactive and dedicated members of the church in a productive fashion.He so believed inCatholic doctrine that he felt confident enough to send out missionaries throughout Europeto christianize the Germanic peoples living there (it was during his tenure as Pope that mostof England was converted to Catholicism by the missionary St.Augustine).His papacyhelped to lay the foundation stones of a truly universal Catholic Church, which was nowcapable of providing the necessary structure that would allow western civilization to surviveand thrive for the next thousand years.Gregory also made monumental decisions regarding Catholicism s relationship to itsEastern Orthodox cousin centered in Constantinople.He refused to be treated as an inferior GGBD161C02 GR4818/Polelle Top Margin: 5/8in Gutter Margin: OctoberReligious Leadership 61to the Byzantine emperor in religious matters.He was careful to cultivate new alliances inorder to preserve the Romano-German Christian culture growing up in the western half ofwhat had been the old Roman empire.When the Byzantines appeared less than capable ofprotecting Rome and the western church from invading groups such as the Lombards, Gre-gory was astute enough to cultivate ties with the Merovingian Franks to garner protection ofhis nascent civilization s interests.Had Gregory been a failed leader, it is quite possible thatwestern civilization may itself have experienced either disastrous destruction at the handsof the Muslims or crushing subordination to the Byzantines.That Gregory in fact turnedout to be a great leader worthy of sainthood demonstrates that he was not just a leader of achurch.He was, rather, the leader of a whole new civilization balanced at the tipping pointbetween despair and confident growth.His leadership thankfully helped channel the Westinto the latter direction.FURTHER READINGMarkus, R.A.Gregory the Great and His World.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1997.ST.PAUL: LEADER OF A NEW RELIGIONSt.Paul (fl.first century AD) was originally a Jew from Tarsus.He changed from being a persecutorof Christians into one of their leading members after experiencing a vision of Jesus on the roadto Damascus.He served the early Christian movement well by seeking out gentile converts to thenew religion.His proselytizing efforts were marked by his concern to emphasize faith in the newreligion s beliefs over adherence to traditional Jewish laws.Tradition states that he later died asa martyr in Rome ca.64 AD.The life of St.Paul illustrates the fact that some of the greatest world leaders are thosewho see themselves as servants to ideas or persons even greater than themselves.His abilityto see himself as a servant leader to Jesus empowered him to become a risk-taking leaderof the highest order.It also allowed him to arguably found a new religion that might nototherwise have succeeded.Paul is, of course, considered by most authorities to have been born Saul of Tarsus inancient Cilicia.Geography made a difference in Saul s life as the area in which he grew up wasa fairly cosmopolitan trading center within the Roman empire.He was apparently familiarwith the Greek language from a fairly young age.This background gave him insight into thelarger gentile culture around him.As a Pharisee, Saul was expected to live in close accordancewith the Mosaic law.Tradition states that as he grew to manhood, he became both a rabbiand a tentmaker.Although he never encountered Jesus in person, he and the Jewish groupswere sufficiently concerned about Jesus that many of them became active persecutors of theearly Jewish followers of Jesus.Many mainstream Jews of Saul s acquaintance, of course,could not accept that the promised Messiah would be crucified or that temple Judaism hadsomehow been superseded by the life and mission of Jesus.Tradition states that Saul had a conversion experience on the road to Damascus (wherehe was apparently going in search of Jesus followers to persecute).He was convincedfrom this experience that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.Saul now to be knownas Paul took it upon himself to prepare the peoples of the world for God s final judg-ment (which many Jews thought imminent).Paul believed that Jesus had been sacrificed GBD161C02 GR4818/Polelle Top Margin: 5/8in Gutter Margin: October 9, 200762 Leadershipfor all mankind s sins and was the vehicle for salvation and eternal life.Paul so believedin his message that he soon became a leader of the apostle community charged with thespreading of the good news of Jesus life and message.If we look closely, we can see hintsof how Paul became such an epochal leader in the Christian tradition and, indeed, inworld history as a whole.First, he showed himself to be open to transforming his corebeliefs in the face of new existential evidence (in the form of his conversion on the roadto Damascus) even if it meant coming to the conclusion that his early life and beliefswere completely wrongheaded and without foundation.Second, he made his personal con-version socially meaningful in a broader sense by having the courage of his convictionsand becoming a leader of the very movement he had been bent on persecuting only ashort time before.That he was able to work so closely with the Apostle Peter and Jesusown brother James in helping to spread the gospel testifies to his leadership abilities anddrive.Paul s ultimate leadership challenge involved the crucial issue of how the early Jesus move-ment should relate to the gentile or non-Jewish community.Many followers and persecutorsof the movement were trapped in the assumption that Jesus and his teachings could onlybe of consequence to the small local Jewish community.Paul s genius as a leader lay in hisability to transcend the initial parameters of the debate by placing Jesus in a universal con-text.For Paul, Jesus was to be seen at the very center of the relationship between mankindand the divine.Paul was willing to play for high stakes in this debate: either Jesus was atthe center of the relationship between humanity and God or he was not.In reframing thedebate, Paul was able to argue that Jewish regulations pertaining to circumcision and foodrituals should not be used to exclude gentiles from the Jesus movement.Paul was able todevelop a distinctive theology in support of such a radical notion by arguing that Jesus coremessage concerned the efficacy of faith and love above all else.The rest of Paul s life as aleader of the early Christian church was based on these simple but powerful postulates.Paul s other effective leadership skill was to use the strength of his enemy to his ownbenefit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]