{"id":33475,"date":"2023-10-18T11:39:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T18:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33475"},"modified":"2023-10-18T11:39:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T18:39:30","slug":"art-the-ultimate-in-feedback-loops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/art-the-ultimate-in-feedback-loops\/","title":{"rendered":"Art: The Ultimate in Feedback Loops"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pictured above is a copy of the original painting,\u00a0<\/span>The Moneychanger and His Wife<\/span>[1]<\/a><\/sup>,\u00a0<\/span>by Quentin Matsys who was inspired by the two types of moneychangers in the sixteenth century Low Countries. \u00a0The city\u2019s money changers made payments on the city\u2019s behalf. Commercial money changers exchange foreign coins for local currency keeping benches at the market fairs. The artist\u00a0<\/span>van Reymerswaele, painted a slightly different version of this painting as moneychangers settled in Antwerp, Belgium. \u00a0In Reymerswaele’s rendition, he reflects the tension between God and money (Matthew 6:4) While the man is weighing gold and jewels, his wife sits next to him reading her devotional book about the Virgin and her Child. The woman is distracted from her prayers as her husband weighs the coins, a task that requires a great deal of concentration. Based on the couple\u2019s clothes, they are middle class but not necessarily nobility. Some say the painting acts as a moral lesson for the spiritual need to resist worldly temptation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was Capitalism a Wordly Temptation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s reading,\u00a0<\/span>The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>by Max Weber and Jason Clark\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Evangelicalism and Capitalism<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>(Ch.3 \u2018Assurance, Anxiety and The Protestant Work Ethic\u2019 I found myself as observer of a different kind of art in an academic written dialogue about the Protestant ethic. With a sense of honor and respect, our mentor, Dr. Jason Clark provided a critique of Max Weber\u2019s argument. \u00a0Specifically, he challenged the well-known philosopher professor (who desired to be a politician)<\/span>[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0that, \u201cProtestant, and then later Evangelical Christians, sought to resist these deforming forces of capitalism, creating new modes of \u2018islands of social care.\u2019\u201d<\/span>[3]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Clark argues with far more finesse and detail that I can write that, \u201cWe see how Evangelicalism was able to transmit itself through the media of new markets and re-narrate its stories and experiences.\u201d<\/span>[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Was there a moral lesson for the spiritual needs in resisting worldly temptations that Clark wanted others to see?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I read\u00a0<\/span>The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>by Max Weber before I read Clark, I discovered that the title implied a cause\/effect relationship involving three terms that I define below: The Protestant Ethic, The Spirit of Capitalism and Modern Western Capitalism all impacting the Industrial Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Protestant Ethic:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> According to Weber the Protestant Ethic generated a profit, \u201cThe providential interpretation of profit making.<\/span>[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In essence, business success plus divine grace was part of the Protestant Ethic culminating in the idea that the pursuit of gain is a divine command.<\/span>[6]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

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The Spirit of Capitalism:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Also a profit ethic is an end and a number of means to that end: industry, frugality, punctuality, and honesty are only valued because they are instrumental in earning more and more money.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Modern Western Capitalism<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span>Involves the unremitting devotion by business people to the pursuit of \u00a0maximum money profit through non-violence, legal and honest means.<\/span><\/p>\n

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If Clark repainted Weber\u2019s \u201cpicture\u201d of \u00a0the Protestant faith during this time in history, what I observe from his insights is that, \u201caccording to Weber, \u2018ascetic Protestantism\u2019 produced a much more activist salvation ethic,\u201d<\/span>[7]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and Clark paints signposts that lead us to his meaning: \u201cEvangelicalism can therefore be seen as an ecclesial countermovement to rapidly changing market conditions, a countermovement that becomes simultaneously captive to the socio-logic of those conditions.\u201d<\/span>[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Might Matsys\u2019s painting of the Money Changer and His Wife<\/em> be expressing the same message Clark is writing as he argues parts of Weber\u2019s thesis? Is he saying Evangelicalism morphing over time was condemning avarice and exalting honesty to the best of its ability?<\/span><\/p>\n

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The ultimate of Feedback Loops<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year as part of our doctoral learning experience, we met in smaller groups outside of our peer groups to create a syntopical video. \u00a0Throughout our one hour virtual discussion, our group shared with a sense of honor and respect how learning with a critical thinking lens was eye opening. \u00a0Our conversation around the LCP findings<\/span>[9]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and asking what we will implement helped us see why this program was so detrimental to our future as leaders. \u00a0One student commented on how she sees more clearly what motivates her even in this season of her life. Most of us have taken multiple assessments but one difference here was how all of our past assessments were brought together under one banner\/heading so we could reflect on what we\u2019ve learned about ourselves. A student said he doesn\u2019t see himself as a superhero and through the assessment found he needed to open his mind. The way he was thinking was a barrier and he didn\u2019t realize it. We all laughed as we said how this process rings true to this saying: \u201cWe don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know!\u201d \u00a0 Specifically citing the difficulties of liminal spaces in the leadership realm, we all agreed that in spite of the myriad leadership challenges we each face, one truth rose to the surface: the intersection of the LCP, the critical thinking readings, and the cohort relationships are incredibly difficult except for the feedback loops\u2013that\u2019s our saving grace. \u00a0We need feedback loops<\/span>[10]<\/a><\/sup>. Our readings, chats, postings, conversations and assignments offer us an academic space to articulate well while \u201ccoaching\u201d one another to communicate clearly.\u00a0 Might what we all read this week in Dr. Clark\u2019s work with Max Weber thesis, be the ultimate in feedback loops\u2013And we were just observers of his art?<\/span><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a>\u00a0By Quinten Metsys – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain,<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a>\u00a0Robin, \u201cThe Professor and the Politician.\u201d The New Yorker, November 12, 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a>\u00a0Clark, Jason,\u00a0<\/span>Evangelicalism and Capitalism\u00a0<\/span>(Ch.3 \u2018Assurance, Anxiety and The Protestant Work Ethic\u00a0p. 120.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a>\u00a0Clark, Jason.\u00a0<\/span>Evangelicalism and Capitalism\u00a0<\/span>(Ch.3 \u2018Assurance, Anxiety and The Protestant Work Ethic\u2019 p.117.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a>\u00a0Weber, \u201cThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.\u201dp.163<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6]<\/a>\u00a0Weber, \u201cThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.P. 164.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[7]<\/a>\u00a0Waterman, \u201cMichael H. Lessnoff, The Spirit of Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic.\u201d p.16<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[8]<\/a>\u00a0Clark, Jason.\u00a0<\/span>Evangelicalism and Capitalism\u00a0<\/span>(Ch.3 \u2018Assurance, Anxiety and The Protestant Work Ethic\u00a0 \u00a0 p. 120<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[9]<\/a>\u00a0The Leadership Accelerator Profile<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[10]<\/a>\u00a0Laudlpg717Interviews.doc<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictured above is a copy of the original painting,\u00a0The Moneychanger and His Wife[1],\u00a0by Quentin Matsys who was inspired by the two types of moneychangers in the sixteenth century Low Countries. \u00a0The city\u2019s money changers made payments on the city\u2019s behalf. Commercial money changers exchange foreign coins for local currency keeping benches at the market fairs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2686,2625,2867,2868],"class_list":["post-33475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-artistry","tag-dlgp01-weber-clark","tag-matsys","tag-weberdlgp02","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33475"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33483,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33475\/revisions\/33483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}