There will be a one-day conference hosted by The Center for Integrity in Business at Seattle Pacific University on October4, 2007. The conferences is named: "Bridging Sunday and Monday: Making Faith Really Matter in Business." My paper entitled: "Sharing the Incarnation: Towards a Model of Mimetic Christological Leadership", has been accepted for the conference and as a chapter for an upcoming book on this topic.Here is a short, preliminary description of the paper:
"This paper proposes a practical model of 'Incarnational' Leadership that communicates the values and behaviors inherent in the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation for those leading in the market place.
The paper starts with the presentation of an early mimetic Christological model of Christian Leadership in Roman Philippi by exploring the judicial, rhetorical structure and the social function of the Pauline Philippians hymn (2:5-11) as a cursus pudorum (course of ignominies) that stood in opposition to the prevalent cursus honorum, the formalized sequence of public offices in first-century Roman cities.
The Philippians hymn challenged the notions and principles of the prevalent shame/honor social matrix of Roman societies by offering an alternative set of behaviors and values that stood in stark contrast with those of the dominant culture. The hymn makes use of a cursus pudorum in which the voluntary abasement, humility and obedience of Christ becomes an exemplum that offers a critique of the tyrannies of the timocratic leadership style of Roman Philippi and offers an alternative vision of service oriented leadership rooted in humility and common mutuality.
This proposed mimetic Christological model of Christian Leadership is further compared and contrasted with other “values-based” approaches to leadership, including Servant and Transformational Leadership theories. It is argued that although this Christo-centric model shares similar values with other “values-based” approaches in leadership, it goes beyond these leadership approaches in that it is ultimately rooted in a mimetic re-enactment of the self-emptying/kenotic Christ."
The paper starts with the presentation of an early mimetic Christological model of Christian Leadership in Roman Philippi by exploring the judicial, rhetorical structure and the social function of the Pauline Philippians hymn (2:5-11) as a cursus pudorum (course of ignominies) that stood in opposition to the prevalent cursus honorum, the formalized sequence of public offices in first-century Roman cities.
The Philippians hymn challenged the notions and principles of the prevalent shame/honor social matrix of Roman societies by offering an alternative set of behaviors and values that stood in stark contrast with those of the dominant culture. The hymn makes use of a cursus pudorum in which the voluntary abasement, humility and obedience of Christ becomes an exemplum that offers a critique of the tyrannies of the timocratic leadership style of Roman Philippi and offers an alternative vision of service oriented leadership rooted in humility and common mutuality.
This proposed mimetic Christological model of Christian Leadership is further compared and contrasted with other “values-based” approaches to leadership, including Servant and Transformational Leadership theories. It is argued that although this Christo-centric model shares similar values with other “values-based” approaches in leadership, it goes beyond these leadership approaches in that it is ultimately rooted in a mimetic re-enactment of the self-emptying/kenotic Christ."
Here is a link to the conference: http://www.spu.edu/sbe/cib/Call_for_Papers-Bridging_Sunday_and_Monday.asp
