By: Jana Dluehosh on September 13, 2024
As I enter my final year of Doctoral work on Leadership, I am left with more questions than answers. We began our studies with a profound quote from our professor that I have found myself repeating to others; “As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.”[1] Studying leaders…
By: Dinka Utomo on September 12, 2024
The book I selected for this week’s assignment is The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis. This is a Christian devotional book first composed in Medieval Latin as De Imitatione Christi (c. 1418–1427). The devotional text is divided into four books of detailed spiritual instructions: (i) “Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life”, (ii) “Directives for the Interior Life”, (iii) “On Interior Consolation”, and…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on September 12, 2024
A Playbook for Power and Position! Introduction The Prince was written over five hundred years ago by Niccolo Machiavelli after his political career was brought to an abrupt end and he was imprisoned. He authored the book hoping it would help restore him to power. It is a book that can still be considered relevant…
By: Adam Harris on September 12, 2024
When I saw that Jason was requiring us to read a book over 300 years old, I was automatically taken back to Oxford when Dr. Martyn Percy asked our DLGP cohorts to name a significant work over 300 years old that is still in print. Several works were named by us before he revealed one…
By: Pam Lau on September 12, 2024
“It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the resume virtues and the eulogy virtues. The resume virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones talked about at your funeral–whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love?”-David Brooks, The Moral…
By: Todd E Henley on September 12, 2024
This week, I was taken back to 1984, my senior year of high school. I remember that spring studying various religions but the only one that stood out was Taoism, because I remember thinking, this is a nice way of living. Forty years later I am so glad I read Tao Te Ching by Lao…
By: Jenny Dooley on September 11, 2024
Have you ever heard of Arthashastra? I hadn’t until this week’s assignment. Led by my curiosity about what 300+ year old books on leadership might exist in Asia, I was delighted to find an ancient book from the sub-continent of India that predates much of what is considered classical treatises on leadership and statecraft from…
By: Kim Sanford on September 10, 2024
Today’s leadership lesson is brought to you by not one, but two, very old books. I enjoyed the challenge of this week’s assignment, perhaps a little too much. I went down a bit of a nerdy rabbit hole[1] and ended up skimming through four books before sitting down to write. I had to stop myself…
By: Scott Dickie on September 10, 2024
Although the book I read was published in 2016 (1), the content of the book was authored some 1900 years earlier (sometime between 98-140 AD) by Ignatius. Perhaps the most famous ‘Ignatius’ is Ignatius of Loyola, but Ignatius of Theophorus had an equally significant historical impact on Christianity—being widely recognized as one of the three…
By: Esther Edwards on September 9, 2024
Finding a book on leadership that has been in continuous print for over 300 years is not an easy feat. Having just purchased a myriad of books for the semester, I asked my husband if he could think of any “book of old.” He immediately mentioned the Foxe’s Book of Martyrs of which he had…
By: Mathieu Yuill on September 9, 2024
Syntopical Review of Meditations: “Be One” – Leadership Lessons from Marcus Aurelius “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” This quote from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations[1] gets right to the point: instead of debating what makes a good leader, simply become one. In today’s world, where leadership advice is everywhere,…
By: Tim Clark on September 9, 2024
There has not been an assignment that has impacted me more than this one: To blog on a book written about leadership that’s over 300 years old. Here’s why it has been so impactful: 300+ year old history is full of books, but it was surprising to me to discover how difficult it was to…
By: John Fehlen on September 9, 2024
The text I have chosen to review is Meditations, written between 170 and 180 AD by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that was birthed and flourished in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The Stoics believed that practicing…
By: Travis Vaughn on September 9, 2024
Intro Born in A.D. 121, Marcus Aurelius served as emperor of the Roman Empire from A.D. 161 until his death in A.D. 180. And according to CNN, the Stoic wisdom found in his Meditations is the very thing people need “to survive the anxiety of the 2024 election.”[1] I’ll get to that, but first some…
By: Jennifer Vernam on September 9, 2024
Tilting at Windmills Perhaps you are familiar with the story of Don Quixote. Maybe you saw the rendition of Man of La Mancha[1] on Broadway or maybe you were lucky enough to see his image made famous by Pablo Picasso while traveling through Spain. Cervantes novel from the 17th century[2] has had a consistent…
By: Kally Elliott on September 9, 2024
Throughout this doctoral program, the famous fable about the tortoise and the hare has reminded me to persevere, tackling one assignment at a time, until the day I stand up on that stage and receive my diploma. To be clear, I imagine myself to be the tortoise, not the hare, as I plug along, slowly…
By: Russell Chun on September 9, 2024
Week 3 – 孙子兵法》与精神之战, The Art of War & the Spiritual Battle Martin Percy and the Kursk, Ukraine offensive Kursk 1943 Sun Tzu’s impact on modern leaders A ChatGPT break Epilogue Dr. Martin Percy and the Kursk, Ukraine offensive In Oxford, Dr. Martyn Percy described the plethora of leadership books and asked us to…
By: Cathy Glei on September 8, 2024
Have you ever thought about your own death? The death rate is 100%. . . all of us are going to die. My mom died at an early age. On the night of her death, I slept on the floor by her bed which was strategically placed in the living room so that we could…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on September 7, 2024
“A third thing that the Church can do in attempting to solve the race problem is to take the lead in strong Christian social action. It is not enough for the Church to be active in the ideological direction; it must also move out into the arena of social action. The first act in this…
By: Dinka Utomo on September 5, 2024
In the last few days, our country’s mass media and social media have been abuzz with news of Pope Francis’ visit. The visit of Pope Francis the highest leader of the Catholic religion to our country is a unique phenomenon. This is because the number of Catholics in our country is only around 3% of…
