The Effect of the Emerging Paradigm of Diversity on the Church and Its Leadership
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THE EFFECT OF THE EMERGING PARADIGM OF DIVERSITY ON THE CHURCH AND ITS LEADERSHIP Submitted by Andrew Peters, Adv. Cert. Account., Cert IV Wk Train & Assess., Th.L., B.Theol., M.A. (Theol). FAIM. A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Theology Faculty of Theology and Philosophy Australian Catholic University Research Services McAuley Campus PO Box 456 Virginia QLD 4014 4th March 2011 Statement of Sources This thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. All research procedures reported in the thesis received the approval of the relevant Ethics/Safety Committees (where required). I would like to acknowledge the support of the following people: 1. My wife, Lynette Peters, for her support throughout the work of this dissertation and listening, time and again, to the same themes as they were being developed and revised; 2. My son Tim Peters for his assistance in proofreading the dissertation, and the informal discussions we have had about different themes of the research that have helped to clarify my own thoughts. These include the reading of his research papers, which though not relating directly to the work of this research dissertation, introduced me to the work of some of the French philosophers such as Alain Badiou, whose work was pertinent to some aspects of this dissertation; and 3. The Anglican Parish of Everton Park, its leaders and congregations, who have worked with me to understand and implement many of the processes outlined in this dissertation. I also like to acknowledge the support of my supervisor, The Reverend Associate Professor Gerard Hall, who helped me find the initial structure of the dissertation and consolidate my thoughts throughout its development and The Reverend Professor Tony Kelly and Professor Neil Ormerod who helped with a final structuring of the dissertation. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract Aims and Problems Between the 1950s and 1990s, a paradigm-change occurred at foundational levels that has had global effect. In this research, I address a number of problems, related to leadership in the church, which have arisen out of this paradigm-change. The first problem relates to the validity of clerical leadership in the new paradigm. The immense effect of the current paradigm-change upon the church led some leadership gurus to propose a change in the locus of leadership in the church, from the clergy to laity. They implied that the clerical leadership was responsible for the deplorable state of the church, and were not appropriately situated to, or capable of, leading the church in the new paradigm. The second problem relates to the reaction and resistance of the community of faith to the current paradigm-change, reflected in its reversion to, and retention of, the toxic operational and communicative structures of the old Christendom paradigm. This suggests that the church faces the danger of resisting God’s activity and purpose in the midst of this paradigm-change. The third problem relates to the hiatus in leadership and decision-making, due to the catastrophic nature of the paradigm-change and the subsequent confusion between clerical and lay leaders as to who is in control of what aspects of the church’s life. Overwhelmed by this, the church is tempted to withdraw even further into its private religious enclave. I propose that the clerical leadership of the church could be well situated to, and capable of, effectively leading the church in the emerging paradigm of diversity if it adopted the new leadership framework established by the paradigm-change. This would see a transformation of the church’s operational and communicative structures, without the loss of its centred values and beliefs, and a reduction in the hiatus in leadership and decision-making. 3 4 Table of Contents Chapter One – Introduction 8 Necessity and Timeliness of the Research 14 Functional Ecclesiology and Autobiographical Background 17 Current Research in the Field 20 Methodology 26 My Contribution to this Study – Research Hypothesis 34 Chapter Two – Meaning of Paradigm and Paradigm Change/Shift 35 Introduction 35 The Meaning of Paradigm 36 Paradigm-shift and Paradigm-change 50 Summary 53 Chapter Three – Paradigm-change and the Nature of Change 54 Introduction 54 Incommensurability 54 Discontinuity 60 What Changes in a Paradigm-change? 63 Summary 77 Chapter Four - Hermeneutical Method 79 Introduction 79 The Biblical Texts as Interpretation 80 What the Biblical Texts are Able to Deliver 85 Interpretation as Understanding and the Engagement of Prejudices 90 Summary 99 Chapter Five - Effect of Paradigm-change in Joseph/Exodus Stories 101 Introduction 101 The Setting of the Biblical Texts 102 Prelude to Paradigm-change in the Ancient Orient 105 Paradigmatic Change in the Ancient Orient 113 Paradigmatic Effect on the Community of Faith 121 Summary 123 5 Chapter Six - Effect of Paradigm-change in the Christ-event 124 Introduction 124 Part A/ The Hellenism Paradigm and the Jewish Community of 129 Faith During the Period of the Second Temple. Prelude to a Paradigm-change in the Orient 129 Paradigm-change in the Orient 132 Summary 139 Part B/ The Hellenism Paradigm, the Christ-event and Birth 141 Of the Christian Church. Jewish Messianic Expectation and the Christ-event 141 Paradigmatic Effect on the Community of Faith 152 Summary 157 Chapter Seven - Prelude to the Current Paradigm-change 159 Introduction 159 Consciousness of a Paradigm-change 159 Paradigmatic Periods 164 Christendom-paradigm 169 Summary 176 Chapter Eight - The Nature of the Emerging Paradigm 178 Introduction 178 Need for a Paradigm-Change 179 The Current Paradigm – Pluralism, Autonomy and Unity 184 God’s Activity in the Emerging Paradigm 194 Summary 199 Chapter Nine - The New Paradigm and a Theology of Correlation 201 and Leadership Introduction 201 The New Paradigm and a Theology of Correlation 202 The New Paradigm and a Theology of Leadership 206 Summary 216 Chapter Ten - New Paradigm Leadership and the church 217 Introduction 217 Paradigm-change and Homeostatic Security 217 Leadership Dynamics in a Differentiated-relatedness Environment 223 New Paradigm Leadership and Ecclesiastical Structure 226 Summary 239 6 Chapter Eleven - New Paradigm Leadership Dynamics and Praxis 241 Introduction 241 New Paradigm Leadership and Praxis 242 New Paradigm Leadership and Contingency Theory 248 New Paradigm Leadership and Systems Theory 256 Internal and External Responsiveness 261 New Paradigm Leadership and Decision-making 265 Summary 270 Chapter Twelve – Contribution of the Study 272 Contribution of the Chapters 272 Conclusion 287 Appendix A 290 Bibliography 298 7 Chapter One Introduction This is a work in Practical Theology. It applies the insights of business and other disciplines to the life and leadership of the Christian Church at the beginning of the third millennium. In particular, I employ the notion of ‘paradigm-change’ as an effective tool for understanding the world in which we live and the kinds of responses Church leaders need to make to be effective agents of the Gospel. It assumes that the last fifty to sixty years have seen tumultuous change in a broad range of political, social and cultural arenas at a global level. The 1900s reflect a period of major social and cultural changes including world wars, economic collapse and recovery, decolonization, major technical changes, scientific discoveries about the universe and changes to the perception of the rights of minority groups, especially in the role of women in the work place, home and church. The intention of this work is not to delve specifically into these areas, as important as they are, but explore whether there are other forces at work, at a global level, that have influenced the changes experienced in these political, social and cultural arenas. Since the terms ‘paradigm’ and ‘paradigm change/shift’ have become common currency in almost every discipline, I explore the nomenclature of these terms, their interpretations and the nature of what they are trying to describe. This exploration lays the foundation, then, upon which I investigate the nature of leadership needed in the church for it to be effective in a rapidly changing world. The latter part of the twentieth century saw immense changes occur at a global level. These changes were extensive in their effect. They affected both developed and developing countries in economic, social and cultural terms and affected all aspects of life. 1 These changes, commonly referred to in paradigmatic terms, delineate the movement from one paradigm to another. 2 In the arenas of both business and church leadership, awareness of the force of these changes occurred in two waves. The first occurred in the 1960s and 70s with management gurus warning of deep foundational changes that would affect the way organizations operate. 1 Peter Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity, Guidelines to Our Changing Society (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1992; reprint, 2003), xiii-xiv. Peter Kaldor and others, Winds of Change (Homebush West, Sydney: Lancer, 1994), xiii. 2 These terms, initially applied to the scientific community in Thomas Kuhn’s work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, subsequently broadened to include other disciplines, including “sociology, anthropology, linguistics, psychology, business studies and theology”. Thomas Nickels, ed., Thomas Kuhn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 1. Erich Von Dietze, Paradigms Explained: Rethinking Thomas Kuhn's Philosophy of Science (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2001), 30. 8 At the same time, Christian writers flagged a loss of the status quo of the church and the advent of a post-Christian era.