Leadership, religious texts and the theme of sin

Overview

Alienation from God and alienation from the self.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What functions does a religious text perform in a community?

   Model answer

   A sacred text supplies a shared account of the community's origin, a standard for its conduct and the words of its worship. The text also outlives any individual leader, so it can be used to judge those in office.

2. 2

   Compare three models of textual authority.

   Model answer

   Rabbinic Judaism reads the written Torah through the oral Torah and the accumulated rulings of the sages. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity read scripture within a teaching tradition, while Protestant traditions following the Reformation gave scripture priority over church authority.

3. 3

   What models of religious leadership do the prophetic texts offer?

   Model answer

   The texts offer the shepherd who feeds the flock rather than himself, the sentinel who must give warning whether or not it is heeded, and the ruler bound by the same law as the ruled. Each model defines authority as accountable service.

4. 4

   How is Ezekiel 34 applied to leadership today?

   Model answer

   The chapter is used to argue that any leader who profits from an institution while neglecting those it exists to serve stands condemned. Church, political and corporate leadership have all been criticised in its terms.

5. 5

   Give the strongest case for using ancient religious texts as a guide to contemporary ethics.

   Model answer

   The texts address conditions that recur in every society, such as the treatment of the poor, the abuse of legal process and the corruption of leadership, and they do so with a moral seriousness that has shaped Western law. They also give a community a shared reference point that stands outside its current interests and can be used to criticise them.

6. 6

   Give the strongest case against using them in that way.

   Model answer

   The texts assume a world of slavery, patriarchy and warfare, and contain commands no one now defends, so any use of them is inevitably selective. Without an agreed authority to settle interpretation, the selection tends to follow the reader's prior convictions rather than correcting them.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.