Leadership and Power

3.1 The origin of human power according to the Judeo-Christian tradition

Despite many examples of tremendous abuses of power in human history, the Judeo-Christian tradition espouses the simple fact that human beings have power, because God – creator of heaven and earth – gave it to them. The creation story links the creation of humankind directly to the command to rule, to power over the other creatures:

This is high praise of humankind – human beings are made in the image of God. Unfortunately, there is a huge speculative overload on the concept of God's image. In contrast to its heavy anthropological and theological impact in Christian theology and beyond, the term God's image only appears at three places in the Hebrew Old Testament: Genesis 1:26, 27; 5:3; 9:6. The Hebrew word used here is zelem, originally meaning statue. In the Old Orient, the statue of a king represented the king himself and his power. It demonstrated his dominion in a particular geographical area. The isolated position of Genesis 1:26 has left much room for theological speculation. During the twentieth century, Old Testament science began to free itself from dogmatic overload and speculation.

Today, the consensus within the Old Testament theology seems to be that being God's image means being God's representative, God's deputy. By being God's representative human beings have power! Benno Jacob, a Jewish theologian who had great influence on Old Testament theologians like Von Rad, wrote in 1934: "In the dominion over the earth and the animals, man is the earthly representative of God". In 1973, Wolff wrote in his well-known Anthropology of the Old Testament:

Psalm 8:5-8 celebrates the high and powerful position the human beings were granted by God:

The lordship includes the ability to exercise power:

As Genesis 1:27 clearly shows, the imago Dei refers both to man and woman. Both are created in God's image, both are God's earthly representatives, both were given the command to rule, to exercise power over the earth and its creatures.

Genesis 9:6 and Psalm 8:5-8 indicate that God's image was not lost after the fall (as opposed to what was taught by Augustine, Luther and Calvin who more or less identified God's image with the status of original righteousness, and this identification led to the dogma that the imago Dei was lost after the fall in Genesis 3). Today, every human being still bears God's image as was meant in Genesis as being God's representative – notwithstanding the fact that this dominion was often misunderstood and led to the exploitation of God's creation.

3.2 Lordship as service: power and responsibility

If we remember that human power has its roots in the imago Dei this should encourage the use of power with good conscience. But this relation also includes a sense of human responsibility. According to the understanding of leadership in the Old Orient, a leader was responsible for his subordinates. In the Bible power is always connected with accountability or responsibility. A leader is account- able to those who have entrusted him/her with power and for those who find themselves in his/her sphere of influence. Guardini summarises this:

As God's representative, a human being has lordship and power. As God's representative she/he should always exercise this power with responsibility towards God.

The passages quoted above from Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 deal with power over non-human creatures. They do not refer to power over other people, which is the case in the context of leadership in the way we defined it. Indeed, the Old Testament sets certain limits on the use of power. Human beings shall not have dominion over other human beings as they have over animals, because the other human beings are also created in God's image. As will be discussed later in the context of cultural power distance, the Old Testament also limited the power of kings and other authorities. The kings of Israel never had absolute power like the kings of the surrounding countries, and they were upbraided by the prophets if they ignored these limitations.

Ultimately, according to the Christian worldview, all human power, including the power over other human beings, is derived from God's power; see Romans 13:1b: " ... for all authority comes from God, and the existing authorities are instituted by Him". Thus, God will hold those given power accountable for the way they exercise their power.

3.3 Authority versus power?

Sometimes Christians would argue: "We are interested in authority, not in power". The word authority sounds more positive and more spiritual, whereas the word power tends to have negative connotations. However, building up a contrast between authority and power is not as spiritual as it might seem at first glance. Luke 4:36b reports that Jesus had authority and power: "What is there in this man's words? He gives orders to the unclean spirits with authority (exousia) and power (dynamis), and they go". The Greek word dynamis means the ability to do something. It can be translated with force, strength or power. The Greek word exousia refers more closely to the permission, the legitimation to do something. A bank robber with his gun has the power to get money but not the legitimation. In other situations people may have the legitimation to do something but lack the power to enforce this right. Jesus had authority and power – and passed on both to his disciples: "He gave them power (dynamis) and authority (exousia) to overcome all demons and to cure diseases". Authority and power should go hand in hand.

3.4 The ethics of power

When is it legitimate to use power? A short answer is: the exercise of power is legitimate if and only if it is carried out in order to create something good or to prevent something bad. Of course, in a specific situation it is often difficult to decide whether a certain act will really lead to good or prevent bad. This formula at least shows a direction.

There are two big dangers of exercising power wrongly: the first danger is the abuse of power, while the second one is the exact opposite: no use of power at all (power vacuum). Some Christians wrongly interpret powerlessness as a Christian virtue.

The Bible has much to say about abuse of power. Many passages of the Old Testament prophets like Micah 2-3 and Ezekiel 22:27; 34:2- 5 accuse the reigning parties of abusing their power. The New Testament mentions many power addicted persons like King Herod or the Pharisees. It also gives the name of a power addicted church leader, Diothrepes, "who enjoys taking the lead", and who tries to expel other Christians from the congregation in order to gag his opposition. Diothrepes has become a prototype of power addicted people in the Church. Sadly enough, church history is full of examples of power abuse. The psychological reasons for abusing power are manifold: it may be greed for money and/or power, or for prestige; or it may be as a result of insecurity in a leadership position – especially if the leader has just recently been promoted; or it may be that the leader simply lacks leadership abilities. See Kretzschmar (2002:53-58) for suggestions on how to develop authentic Christian leaders through moral and spiritual formation.

However, the Bible does not condemn the wish to take the lead in the church. The desire for power be- comes a problem if power is treated as an end in itself. Power is a legitimate means. But power shall never be an end in itself. Those who aim at power as an end in itself, and who aim at power just for the sake of power, miss the right target – which corresponds to the original meaning of the Greek word hamartia (sin). The Jesuit priest Kiechle, rightly remarks that whoever looks for power as an end in itself, does not regard it as a gift from God, but starts to idolise power, binds him-/herself to power and abuses it. Aiming at power for power's sake leads to power addiction.

Some people are so concerned about the abuse of power that they do not dare to exercise power at all. The difficulty is that if a leader does not exercise his/her power, there will be a power vacuum – and power addicted people will try to fill this power vacuum. Actually, it is essential that leaders with the right character take responsibility and exercise their power wisely, adequately, but nevertheless use their power, if they love their people.

Greenleaf coined the term servant-leadership for the business world in 1970, and describes the consequences if gifted persons with the right attitude refuse to lead:

The conclusion is obvious. It is a misunderstanding to regard powerlessness as a Christian virtue. Leaders need to use power in order to lead towards a better society.