The Lives of Saints
I am glad that I didn’t just read the title or description for this book. I am glad that I didn’t stop reading after the introduction section, or even the first chapter. Because my first impression of “Heroic Leadership”, a guide to “best practices” for the business world based on the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) was not positive.
Chris Lowney, the author, begins by recounting how, “after living for seven years as a Jesuit seminarian, practicing vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Jesuit general in Rome, I morphed into a corporate man… the following Monday brought a new career in investment banking.”[1] Talk about going from “significance to success”, rather than the other way around!
The background and biography of Lowney led me to a skeptical approach as I read this book. I was waiting for him to reveal, how his whole Morgan Stanley Investment Banking career was really somehow part of a “marketplace ministry” of some kind. Or, how, he used his position in that industry to lead corporate titans toward the God of grace and mercy. Or, how, after walking for years in the (expensive) shoes of an investment banker, he returned to his roots and gave it all away, or somehow leveraged it for a greater good. But this “big reveal” moment never came.
Instead of a personal transformation story, Lowney demonstrates in his book, the values and characteristics of the Jesuits and how they relate to leadership across a variety of organizations and settings. One of the “big ideas” in this book is about “self-leadership”, or self-knowledge and how all the rest of leadership can flow out of this starting point. He writes, “A leader’s most compelling leadership tool is who he or she is: a person who understands what he or she values and wants, who is anchored by certain principles, and who faces the world with a consistent outlook. Leadership behavior develops naturally once this internal foundation has been laid. If it hasn’t been, mere technique can never compensate.”[2]
The way that Jesuits achieve this “self-leadership”, or how they remain anchored in who they are with God and for others, is primarily through the Ignatian exercises, specifically the “Examen”. As Mark Thibodeaux writes in his recent book “Reimagining the Ignatian Examen”, it was created to be, “a very short (“quarter of an hour”) twice-daily prayer that can be prayed at any time that is most convenient.”[3] It includes “the three R’s”, Relish, Request, Review, Repent, and Resolve. Through this continual feedback loop of honest self-reflection and reliance on God, the Jesuit (and anyone who uses the Examen) can then move out into the day ready to live and serve fully.
In one anecdote about the use of the Examen, Lowney shares how Loyola once sharply rebuked some of his followers because they wanted to pray “too much”. His vision for ministry was for “prayer on the run”, coupled with deep engagement with the world. Jesuits, he said, “should be simul in actione contemplativus (“contemplative even in action”).[4]
In setting up the Jesuits, Loyola described a wide-open mission for his company. “The aim and end of this Society is, by travelling through the various regions of the world at the order of the (pope) or of the superior of the Society itself, to preach, hear confessions, and use all the other means it can… to help souls.”[5]
I loved reading the stories of the early Jesuits and the ways that they took their contemplation, prayer and faith, and journeyed with it, out into the wider world. Within a decade of starting out, there were Jesuits operating on 4 continents, they learned local languages, took on local cultures, and were on the look out for any opportunity for ministry. What a picture of what “leadership with a global perspective” is all about!
I found myself underlining passages from the book to share with key leaders in my own congregation. The lessons contained in this book overflow from these pages and right into our own time. Sections with titles like “Making it up as he went” and “embracing the world rather than retreating from it” offer the kind of freedom to experiment and try new things that I seek for myself and my church.
The Jesuit modo de proceder, or way of proceeding or “how we do things” is inspiring to read and challenging to try and live out. It includes, “be mobile, open to new ideas, blind to national borders, mutually supportive, and relentlessly disposed to continuous improvement.”[6]
As I reflect on my own leadership and context, I wonder how well I have passed on those kinds of lessons to my own people, and even, how well I really live them out myself. After all, the “real life Jesuits” of the 16th century didn’t have the luxuries that we enjoy today. In his novel “Silence”, Shusaku Endo explores the lives and ministries of Jesuits who attempt to share the gospel in 16th century Japan. The story has all the contours of the “values” of the Jesuits, they boldly cross seas and borders, they step into foreign cultures and learn languages. But in Endo’s story, they face terrible persecution as a result.
In one passage, a group of Christians (including their Jesuit missionary leader) are called on to go through with an external show of renouncing their Christian faith. It isn’t “real” they are told, but they must “trample” on a picture of Jesus. “It’s a tiring business; but the sooner you go through with it, the sooner you get out of here. I’m not telling you to trample out of conviction. If you just go through with the formality, it won’t hurt your beliefs.”[7]
When the people in the story refuse, they are persecuted, tortured and even killed. The kind of persecutions that Jesuits (and other missionaries) have faced is something that I have no real experience of. Reading Lowney’s book was not only educational, but it was also exciting, it caused me to think of new ideas and dream new dreams, but all of this took place in the comfortable confines of my local Starbucks.
For today, I am an “armchair leader”, just reading, writing and thinking about these topics. But my prayer is that as I learn the lessons of leadership, that there will be more border-crossing, language learning, and cultural engagement ahead in my ministry and for my church. And maybe someday, there will be for Chris Lowney as well.
[1] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2003), 1.
[2] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2003), 19.
[3] Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ, Reimagining the Ignition Examen (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2015), ix.
[4] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2003), 147.
[5] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2003), 144.
[6] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2003), 223.
[7] Shusaku Endo, Silence (New York: Picador, 1969), 127.
About the Author
Dave Watermulder
8 responses to “The Lives of Saints”
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Hi Dave,
I’m glad you found some self-reflection after reading the rest of the story. I imagine you are way more Lowney than you realize. Did you do any research on reviews? It’s interesting to note that while most were positive, some were very negative to this approach. One article I read talked about “post-heroic leadership”. Keep reading and reflecting…that’s how personal change begins.
Great reflections, Dave. Do you practice the prayer of the Examen? In our community we meet for prayer twice daily, and the second time, which is at six in the evening, we do a mini-examen together, asking “Where was God today?” Then we each share where we experienced God during our everyday activities and interactions. This is a practice that has really helped me to become more aware of God’s presence and work in an around me.
In your concluding statement, “And maybe someday, there will be for Chris Lowney as well” are you suggesting that Lowney isn’t practicing what he’s preaching? Can you say more about this final statement? I’m not sure I understand what you are getting at.
I am not sure about you but I struggle with being simul in actione contemplativus. It is either one or the other for me and honestly, most of the time it’s action with little contemplation. Somehow I think I am missing the point but feel powerless to change. As I read this text and your post I was challenged to consider sharing the book with leaders/elders in my own context and church. How do you think that would go over in your context? What structural changes might occur within your church if these practices were carried out in your congregation? What impact do you think they might have. I particularly wonder how recognizing ‘everyone’ as a leader might help Millennials maintain connection with the local congregation as they feel empowered to live out their faith in their own way. What do you think?
Dave,
I appreciate the self reflection and honesty of your post. I did not come into the book with a skeptical eye and after reading your journey through the book I think I may have missed an opportunity. Thanks for the insights, how do you think you will apply this to your ministry going forward.
I haven’t read the Shisaku Endo book “Silence”, but I saw the Scorsese film last year. It haunts me still.
The Jesuits brought the gospel to four continents, even North America, and often were martyred for their faith. About 100 kilometres north of our condo in Toronto is a shrine commemorating the eight Jesuit martyrs who lost their lives on the shores of Lake Huron when tortured and massacred by the Iroquois in 1649.
http://martyrs-shrine.com/
The prayer on the run and the idea of contemplative action is one that should have great resonance with us today. This reading is encouraging me to take up the Examen again.
Hi Dave,
I am so glad you questioned the author’s leap to the corporate financial world. Your thoughts mirrored some of my initial reflections. First of all, is 7 years very long to come across as an expert Jesuit? Then to become a successful financier, is this guy truly a believer in the tenants of the Jesuits, or did he just claim them because it suited his own purposes?
Well written my Brother!
Dave,
I read your comments on Lowney’s “Examen” and while the ritual acknowledges God, it does little to connect the leader with Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. I wonder why? I rode on a plane from Bagdad to Boise the other night, and sat by a man holding some religious worry-beads. He was holding and manipulating the beads with his fingers in a nervous type of ritual, I felt remorse for his lost soul in need of Christ. I wish Lowney would have brought Christ to his narrative about leadership.
The Jesuit way of proceeding “modo de proceder” lacks reference to and focus on Jesus Christ. Lowney was criticized by Boer for trying to “secularize” the Jesuit narrative and from what I can see, there is little if any direct connection to the leadership methods that Jesus Christ modeled for over three years with his disciples.
Stand firm,
M. Webb
Great post as usual Dave. I resonated with similar quotes like this one…“A leader’s most compelling leadership tool is who he or she is: a person who understands what he or she values and wants, who is anchored by certain principles, and who faces the world with a consistent outlook. Leadership behavior develops naturally once this internal foundation has been laid. If it hasn’t been, mere technique can never compensate.” I think the value of “knowing thy self” is lost on many leaders and is essential to the overall health of the leader and organization. I’m curious how you feel about your own knowledge and understanding of yourself?