By: Sam Stephens on November 2, 2013
Of all the reading I have done on leadership during the recent past, Edwin Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix has been the most challenging and yet quite stimulating. Friedman’s approach to addressing the leadership crisis is from quite a different angle than that which most of…
By: Raphael Samuel on November 2, 2013
Anthony Elliott The World is shrinking, that is what I heard often in the 1980’s . Not anymore, the world has shrank, we have become connected in so many ways that some prefer to see the world as a global village.Thanks to technology, super highways, rail, and air travel we have become the most connected…
By: gfesadmin on November 2, 2013
#dminlgp: Consuming missions! dminlgp: “You have a heart for missions. You love to be part of the action. On the ground. In the thick of ministry. Serving where you can. THIS IS FOR YOU” There is a chance that anyone who has been at the airport or on a plane and certainly a church mission…
By: gfesadmin on November 2, 2013
#dminlgp: To Which Society Do You Belong? dminlgp: After a few weeks of reading about theology, I found myself wanting more of the same. I guess you might say I’m a creature of habit! However, as I began to read, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, by Anthony Elliott, I was immediately captured by the story…
By: Stefania Tarasut on November 1, 2013
Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction By: Anthony Elliott I have to admit that I was frustrated with the first chapter of this book, and I think that my frustration kind of overshadowed the rest of the reading. I want to start off by saying that I might actually be wrong in my thinking, so I’m…
By: Phil Smart on November 1, 2013
Am I doing anything right? This is the question that confronted me while reading Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman. My church recently hired a new Executive Director /Pastor. She has been very methodical in transforming our 40 employees into a very organized and accountable group of pastors and assistants – or so I thought.…
By: Miriam Mendez on November 1, 2013
After a few weeks of reading about theology, I found myself wanting more of the same. I guess you might say I’m a creature of habit! However, as I began to read, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, by Anthony Elliott, I was immediately captured by the story of Natalie. The question, “to which society does…
By: Michael Badriaki on November 1, 2013
“You have a heart for missions. You love to be part of the action. On the ground. In the thick of ministry. Serving where you can. THIS IS FOR YOU” There is a chance that anyone who has been at the airport or on a plane and certainly a church mission trip,…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on November 1, 2013
Contemporary Social Theory by Anthony Elliott offers great insights to the current issues that we are facing in our time. What I appreciated about this book is that the author does not only present different social theorist arguments but he also discusses how those theories translate into everyday people’s lives. His discussion on society and…
By: Carol McLaughlin on November 1, 2013
In Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction Anthony Elliott takes the reader for an expansive overview. Someone may liken it to a plane ride from the vantage point of an open-air cockpit. Another may feel as if they have been on a thrill ride where you only have a limited view of what is ahead. In…
By: Julie Dodge on November 1, 2013
I am a social worker. We social workers are pragmatists; we recognize that part of what we do is read and study the theories of many other disciplines and strive to apply them in the social context. I am also, by personality, drawn first to concepts, and then identify the pieces which contribute to the…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on November 1, 2013
I approached the subject of contemporary social theory with much interest, but also with much hesitation. My past education deals with, well that of education, biology, theology, cultures, and missiology. Though I know I must have traveled through the realms of social theory I must have done it indirectly and never did so directly. This…
By: rhbaker275 on November 1, 2013
At the outset of his book, “Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction,”[1] Anthony Elliott indicates that he will cover the spectrum of social concepts (of which he list thirteen to name a few) and the “significant assessments of society – of the complex ways in which we live” (p.8). I could relate to Elliott’s story-line as…
By: Sharenda Roam on November 1, 2013
According to Edwin H. Friedman in his book “A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix,” three interlocking characteristics of an imaginatively gridlocked system are: “an unending treadmill of trying harder, looking for answers rather than reframing questions; and either/or thinking that creates false dichotomies.”(Kindle, 684) Regarding the “treadmill of trying…
By: John Woodward on November 1, 2013
For me, venturing into Anthony Elliott’s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction was like going to London for my first face-to-face with my LGP4 cohort. I had heard the names of Marcuse, Adorno, Bathes, Foucault and Derrida for years and read about them in hundreds of books and articles. But they were merely names attached to vague…
By: Richard Volzke on October 31, 2013
I have to admit that this week’s book by Anthony Elliott, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, did not resonate with me and I found it difficult to follow what the author was trying to say. Elliott’s attempt to define society was intriguing, but I have to wonder if he, and we, are making this issue more…
By: David Toth on October 31, 2013
Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat was a defining look at the dynamic of globalization that enabled the reader to embrace the largest global dynamics and understand how they worked together. In Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, Edwin Friedman accomplishes much the same feat inregard to leadership as he puts forth a…
By: Sandy Bils on October 31, 2013
We live in a leadership-toxic climate. The system is toxic itself, because we live in a chronically anxious society, almost like a seatbelt-society, that is more oriented towards security than adventure. In this circumstance of anxiety most of the time a resistance to leadership doesn’t occur out of problematic issues, but merely out of the…
By: Bill Dobrenen on October 31, 2013
“It’s all about networking.” Do you want a job? Network. Do you want some open doors? Network. Do you want to be successful? Network. Do you want to be better equipped for life? Network. Is the old concept of networking still valid in 2013? What do we mean by networking? Are we talking about people…
By: Garrick Roegner on October 31, 2013
Sam Houston and Edwin Friedman There is a sense that the world faces a crisis of leadership. Europe is embroiled in a seemingly intractable economic crisis, much of their own doing. The US struggles with the continual threat of government shutdown. The millennial generation’s response seems just as dysfunctional in this liquid world as popularly…
