Schedule

Date

Reading

Exercises

('one page' means around 300 words, double-spaced)

I. Ethical Foundations and Theories (do between now and 5 June)

20 May?

Read Samuel Kunhiyop, African Christian Ethics, preface and chapter 1.

In about half a page, answer question 2 on page 6.

Before we do a lot more work on ethical foundations and theories, let’s look at a concrete issue in many African churches. I have picked the topic of magic and witchcraft because it is the only topic in the section called “Religious Issues.” Later you will be choosing a topic from each of the other sections.
If some of you students think this is not the best topic for our class, email me with suggestions for a better one from among Kunhiyop’s topics in part two.

21 May?

Read Kunhiyop pages 374-392. Most of this is chapter 30 on witchcraft. You may want to refer back to it as you learn the theoretical material for the course and get a clearer picture of why he’s approaching it in this way.

In a page, how adequate does Kunhiyop’s treatment of witchcraft seem? (For instance, what are its strengths? How might it need to adjust for various Ethiopian contexts? Is anything missing?)

22 May?

Read Kunhiyop chapter 2. In America, our ethics are strongly influenced by our parents and extended families, but also by entertainment (films, music, television), peers (increasingly through social media on the Internet), workplace rules and cultures, churches, school systems and their teachers and curricula, and cultural features like proverbs, stories, and myths.

In a page, answer question 1 on page 26, first where Ethiopian leaders are concerned, then where Ethiopian common people are concerned. You may want to focus this question on a specific social group that is important in your ministry.

Answer question 3 on page 26 by listing several examples.

23 May?

Read Kunhiyop chapter 3. Pay special attention to “Major Theories” in pages 34-42, especially utilitarianism, ‘rule’ and ‘act’ deontology, and then virtue/character ethics.

Offer several examples to answer this question, adapted from question 1 on page 44: “How have western ethics been influential in Ethiopia?” You don’t need to evaluate whether they have been helpful or unhelpful.

24 May?

Let me tell you now that I favor virtue ethics, whereas Kunhiyop seems to draw more on deontology and utilitarianism (see page 74).

In two pages, answer this question, adapted from question 4: “Is it morally justifiable for a student to bribe his or her teacher for a higher grade? How might a utilitarian, deontologist, and virtue ethicist answer?”

25 May?

Read Kunhiyop chapters 4-5. Kunhiyop describes Christian ethical principles of general revelation, the Bible, the Triune God, humanity, the redeemed community, and the eternal future. He is operating from a Protestant, sub-Saharan African perspective.

If our class were to write this chapter from an Ethiopian and Tewahedo perspective, what would it list as major principles for ‘foundations for Christian ethics’? Draw up such a list.

Test the list you just developed by answering question 2 on page 71. In a paragraph, on what principles does your community actually draw in such a situation?

26 May?

Read Kunhiyop chapter 6. Here is where Kunhiyop lays out a way to apply ethical principles to complicated situations involving potential or actual ethical conflicts. Note that the approach he follows for the rest of the book is what he describes as hierarchical or “graded absolutism.” It is important to keep this in mind when we read his treatments in part two.

In one paragraph, answer question 2 on page 75.

We will spend some time in class appraising Kunhiyop’s “graded absolutism.” I want to supplement it with material on virtues and leadership in other books.

27 May?

Read Kreeft, For Heaven’s Sake, chapter 4. This is an American book that is arguing for a virtue ethic over utilitarian ethics. Virtue ethics is very important in Catholic moral theology, and Kreeft is a Roman Catholic philosopher.

 Kreeft says that “virtue is simply health of soul” (62). In up to one page, do Ethiopians agree that these are the qualities of healthy souls? Where do various Ethiopian cultures affirm and teach the cardinal virtues of justice, prudence, fortitude/courage, and temperance? (Think of the sources of ethics in Kunhiyop chapter 2.)

28 May?

Read Daniel Goleman’s article “What Makes a Leader?” What Goleman calls ‘emotional intelligence’ is an aspect of personal character that lines up with some of the Christian virtues.

In a paragraph, where in your own life have you seen ‘emotional intelligence’ contribute to a leader’s effectiveness? Where have you seen lack of emotional intelligence limit it?

29 May?

Read 1 Corinthians 13, then Kreeft chapter 5. Review Kunhiyop pages 40-41 on virtue ethics.

Return to the subject of witchcraft from earlier. In a page, what difference does it make to have focused on virtuous character (either the character of a community or of individual persons) when responding to the practice of witchcraft among Christians? For instance, would witchcraft make any sense in a community characterized by the theological virtue of faith or the cardinal virtue of courage? Does witchcraft help give Christians those character traits, or does it do the opposite?

30 May?

Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), then Kreeft chapter 6.

Kreeft sketches five ways of interpreting and living (or not living) the Sermon on the Mount and its Beatitudes, claiming that the first four are false. In a paragraph, how does your own way of interpreting and living it compare with these?

In 1-2 pages, in what way(s) is your ministry built upon the rock of these words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? In what way(s) is it not?

31 May-5 June?

Over one week, read Kreeft chapters 7-13. Do it in this way: Every day, for a week, read one chapter. Then do the assignment for that day.

After reading each day’s chapter, focusing on one deadly sin or vice and one Beatitude, prayerfully consider where your life is marked by that vice and where it is marked by that Beatitude. For instance, in what ways are you – your life, your local community, your people – characterized by pride. And in what ways are you characterized by humility or poverty of spirit? No need to write these down.

How do the virtues and the Beatitudes correspond with Goleman’s five components of emotional intelligence (Goleman p. 88)? You may want to make a chart with the virtues and the Beatitudes and vices from Kreeft on one side, and Goleman’s list of components and hallmarks on the right. What matches up, and what does not?

by 6 June

Read Kreeft chapter 14. Kreeft believes a focus on virtue can cure what ails secular western modern culture.

In up to one page, what do Kreeft’s traditional Christian ethics, which he targets at modern western settings, have to offer your community in its specific Ethiopian context?

Return again to Kunhiyop’s treatment of witchcraft. You now have the additional resources of wisdom regarding vices and Beatitudes. In up to one page, how do these resources affect your interpretation of the practice of witchcraft and your pastoral response to it?

Your ethical ‘toolkit’ now contains a variety of tools (conceptual understanding of vices, scriptures including the theological virtues and Beatitudes, ordinary knowledge such as emotional intelligence and cardinal virtues, the knowledge and gifts of our Triune God, etc.). As we have drawn on them to understand and respond to witchcraft, we can do the same with other ethical issues in Kunhiyop part two. But first, let’s consider what it means to be a leader.

By 6 June, email me all of the written exercises above, in one PDF or Microsoft Word file.

II. Leadership Development (do these 8-19 June)

8 June?

Read Gayle Beebe, The Shaping of an Effective Leader, introduction and chapter 1. Note that, in his introduction character is the foundation on which all the other levels rest. However, vices and virtues affect every other level. (Thus virtue is a necessary but not sufficient condition of every aspect of effective leadership.) Pay close attention to pages 33-37, which feature a list of the ‘eight deadly vices’ of Evagrius of Pontus (these became the traditional list of seven deadly sins that Kreeft describes), alongside corresponding life-giving virtues that are not unlike the Beatitudes. What Beebe is adding to what you already learned from Kreeft is the application of character, vice, and virtue to (a) aspects of effective leadership (defined on pages 20-21), and (b) the development of leaders ‘up the pyramid’ of leadership formation.

Can you draw up an inventory of your own traits and capacities using the lists on 20-21 and 34-35? What might be limiting your effectiveness as a leader either now or in the future? This is difficult work. It involves insight, and for us sinners that requires contemplation and illumination as we prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to reveal us to ourselves truthfully, and confidence that Jesus Christ is our loving and merciful Lord and Savior who will refine us and make us useful in his Kingdom.

9 June?

Read Simon P. Walker, “The Human Ecology Approach,” Briefing Paper 1 (available through this link) and Briefing Paper 2. In these briefing papers Walker is writing to educators about children and schooling. We will use them to introduce his theories of ‘human ecology’ and leader development. Where Beebe focuses on development and Pierce on spiritual struggle and growth, Walker focuses on how childhood psychological development shapes us as adults and as leaders. This can give us insight into what kinds of struggles we may have as disciples and developing leaders.

Practice working with the four landscapes Walker sketches in Briefing Paper 2 (Shaping, Defining, Adapting, and Defending) by applying them to yourself. In 1-2 pages, what ways are you one or more of these types? What forces in your past might have formed you along these lines?

10 June?

Read Walker, The Undefended Leader, pp. 101-111.

Answer question 2 on page 111.

11 June?

Read Walker, “The Human Ecology Approach,” briefing paper 3, and Walker, The Undefended Leader, pp. 172-177. Also review Matthew 6:1-23.

In his third briefing paper Walker says, “The Human Ecology Approach seeks to develop the awareness a person has of their own strategies by which they manage their landscape. Self awareness starts by knowing what we are doing, when we are doing it, how it affects other people, and why we are doing it” (4). In one page, answer: What is on your front stage? What is on your back stage? These two will naturally differ to some extent. Do they hold together and harmonize, or do they pull you apart? In other words, how coherent are they?

12 June?

Read Walker, The Undefended Leader, pp. 112-124.

In one page, answer questions 2 and 3 on page 124.

13 June?

Read Walker, “The Human Ecology Approach,” briefing paper 4, and The Undefended Leader, pp. 178-194.

15 June?

Read Walker, The Undefended Leader, pp. 137-147. Walker’s account of the moral formation of leaders lines up with Beebe’s model of a pyramid that must be built from the bottom up, often through struggle.

Consider but do not answer in writing questions 2, 6, and 8 on page 147. In a paragraph, answer question 7.

16 June?

Read Walker, The Undefended Leader, pp. 299-305.

In up to one page, how can the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ free you from ‘defended leadership’ to leading with ‘nothing to lose’ and ‘everything to give’? Pray after you finish this exercise.

17 June?

Read T. Burton Pierce, Ministerial Ethics, chapter 1 (“The New Morality of Ethics”). Pierce focuses on the struggle within us between what Paul causes ‘flesh’ (the fallen and undisciplined human nature) and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This puts those conceptual tools in our ethical toolkit in the context of our salvation.

Choose a saint – either a famous saint that the broader Church venerates, or some holy person in your own local community, family, or neighborhood – who has also been a leader. Your assignment is just to write down that person’s name. Later, in class, we will examine these questions: How does (or doesn’t) that person’s life feature this kind of spiritual struggle between flesh and Spirit? How does (or doesn’t) that person’s career look like the rising pyramid that Beebe sketches, or Walker’s struggles and choices?

On your own, you might also consider a broader question: Do the things you’ve been learning in this course help you make sense of the lives of the saints? Do the lives of the saints help you make more sense of the things you’ve been learning in this course?

18 June?

Let’s return yet again to Kunhiyop’s treatment of witchcraft. You now have additional resources concerning leadership. How do these resources affect your interpretation of the practice of witchcraft, and especially the ways you would respond to it as a leader?

By 20 June, email me this second set of written exercises, in one PDF or Microsoft Word file.

III. Ethical Matters (do these 22 June-3 July)

by 23 June?

It’s time to turn to Kunhiyop part two. Read Section A on political issues (chapters 7-9).

Choose one chapter’s topic to focus on when we are together. It should be of special relevance to your own community or your life. We will use class time to craft a moral stance on that specific topic and consider how you might act, in Walker’s words, “out of who you are.” You have no writing assignment yet, but you may want to ‘work ahead’ by thinking through relevant scriptures, ordinary knowledge, vices, cardinal and theological virtues, the struggle between flesh and Spirit, Beatitudes, your own personal qualities as a leader, and so on.

by 26 June?

Read Section B on financial issues (Kunhiyop chapters 10-12).

Do the same with one chapter from that section.

Read Section C on marriage and family issues (Kunhiyop chapters 13-19).

Do the same with one chapter from that section.

Read Section D on sexual issues (Kunhiyop chapters 20-24).

Do the same with one chapter from that section.

Read Section E on medical issues (Kunhiyop chapters 25-29).

Do the same with one chapter from that section.

Complete this set of readings and choices before 6 July when we begin our week together.

TBA