With God on All Sides: Leadership in a Devout and Diverse America
Douglas A. Hicks
Abstract
Perhaps no other nation is as religiously diverse as the United States. For elected officials, school principals, and corporate leaders, this diversity poses challenges. How should leaders deal with menorahs and crosses, veils and turbans, prayers and holidays? How can they honor the religious convictions of all Americans? Although the devout possess moral and spiritual resources that can enrich civic life, leaders must also be prepared to cope with the inevitable conflicts that come with pluralism. This book considers six visions of American leadership for navigating the post-9/11 religious l ... More
Perhaps no other nation is as religiously diverse as the United States. For elected officials, school principals, and corporate leaders, this diversity poses challenges. How should leaders deal with menorahs and crosses, veils and turbans, prayers and holidays? How can they honor the religious convictions of all Americans? Although the devout possess moral and spiritual resources that can enrich civic life, leaders must also be prepared to cope with the inevitable conflicts that come with pluralism. This book considers six visions of American leadership for navigating the post-9/11 religious landscape. It proposes that the most compelling vision is one of building social crossroads and connectors among religiously diverse people. Individuals and groups follow different paths, but their paths inevitably cross in politics and civil society. How people interact at those places, and how the social crossroads and connectors are designed, are matters of leadership. The Spanish term convivencia, roughly translated as living alongside each other, is a helpful concept for developing this vision. The book incorporates stories of how diverse Americans have transformed public controversies into cases of cooperation. The key is to engage one another with a spirit of humility, build communication and trust, and offer an inclusive vision that is true to America’s principles. The book provides a guide to leadership — and citizenship — in a devout and diverse nation.
Keywords:
citizenship,
convivencia,
crossroads,
leadership,
pluralism,
religion and civil society,
religion and politics,
religious diversity
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195337174 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2009 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195337174.001.0001 |
