Description: The Diffusion of Ecclesiastical Authority explores the leadership of the church in Acts from a sociological perspective. Two primary models emerge from a sociologically informed investigation of first-century Greco-Roman and Jewish religious leadership: ""manager-leader"" and ""innovator-leader."" An examination of seven passages in Acts reveals that the leaders of the early church, although initially conforming to cultural expectations, are best described as innovator-leaders whose counter-cultural actions ...
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Description: The Diffusion of Ecclesiastical Authority explores the leadership of the church in Acts from a sociological perspective. Two primary models emerge from a sociologically informed investigation of first-century Greco-Roman and Jewish religious leadership: ""manager-leader"" and ""innovator-leader."" An examination of seven passages in Acts reveals that the leaders of the early church, although initially conforming to cultural expectations, are best described as innovator-leaders whose counter-cultural actions resulted in the empowerment of new leaders and the advancement of the gospel. Through the use of fictive kinship language, the voluntary sharing of authority, the fostering of a sense of mutual dependence on God as the common patron, and the redefinition of what is honorable, the leaders in Acts consistently enabled others to share authority in the church. About the Contributor(s): Darin H. Land is an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. He lives with his wife in Alhambra, California.
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Add this copy of The Diffusion of Ecclesiastical Authority: Sociological to cart. $29.21, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2008 by Pickwick Publications.
Add this copy of The Diffusion of Ecclesiastical Authority: Sociological to cart. $47.58, new condition, Sold by Booksplease rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Southport, MERSEYSIDE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2008 by Pickwick Publications.
A well-known cliche states that hindsight is 20/20. Darin Land's book has given me the benefit of a retrospective glance at the dissertation that I wrote more than 20 years ago. He did well to specify that I avoided "gross eisegesis" (p. 16) and not eisegesis in general. As I read his summary 20 years later, I can see that I retrojected my spin on my denomination's political and doctrinal struggles of the 1980s into an idealized Jerusalem church.
With my biases properly noted, I am impressed positively with Darin Land's argument that the leadership of the Jerusalem church, as described in Acts, followed a pattern of expanding what Weber called legitimate authority. This argument posits that the community's earliest leaders increased the availability of leadership opportunities both culturally, within the local community, and geographically, as the Christian movement expanded. Land, of course, sees this diffusion as a notable component of the description of leadership in Acts. The extent to which other groups in classical antiquity showed parallel tendencies and the implications for questions of succession might prove fruitful topics of future inquiry.
Particularly enlightening is his comparative analysis of the leadership styles attested in various religious movements during classical antiquity. This analysis can be refined and sharpened in subsequent publications, as he looks at early Christian writings in the context of those comparative materials that might be most specific to their presumed Sitze im Leben.
Congratulations are in order, and I will be interested in the paths he takes in his future publications.
