Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership
Elton Trueblood
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN: 006226284X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Many writers have explored Lincoln's leadership; others have debated Lincoln's ambiguous religious identity. But in this classic work, Christian philosopher and statesman Elton Trueblood reveals how Lincoln's leadership skills flowed directly from his religious convictions—which explains how the president was able to combine what few leaders can hold together: moral resoluteness with a shrewd ability to compromise; confidence in his cause while refusing to succumb to the traps of self-righteousness or triumphalism; and a commitment to victory while never losing sight of his responsibility for—or the humanity of—his enemy. These rich meditations offer deep wisdom and insight on one of the most effective leaders of all time.
slaves or slavery in states where they were acceptable. “I have,” he wrote to William S. Speer of Tennessee, “done this many, many times; and it is in print, and open to all who will read. Those who will not read or heed what I have already publicly said would not read or heed a repetition of it. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”6 An example of the way in which the President could combine his love of humor and the love of the
Lincoln read the conclusion of his address to the assembled family and then, when they had withdrawn from the room, prayed audibly for strength and guidance. Noah Brooks reported that the President, after entering the White House and in spite of the demands of a busy schedule, observed daily the practice of prayer. “Sometimes,” said Brooks, “it was only ten words, but those ten words he had.” His chief private secretary, John Nicolay, who had a better opportunity than most people to know the
said, “He remembered that ‘God is in history,’ and he felt that nowhere had His hand and His mercy been so marvelously conspicuous as in the history of this nation. He hoped and he prayed that the same hand would continue to guide us, and that same mercy continue to abound to us in the times of our greatest need.” Fortunately, Dr. Gurley could speak with firsthand experience, because he had been with the President many times. In the light of such intimate knowledge he added, “I speak what I know,
not, of course, alone in his understanding of the moral pattern of history with its consequent sorrow. Few who have understood the idea of Providence have spoken primarily of comfort. Lincoln’s correspondent, Eliza Gurney, spoke to him not only of the ecstasy, but also of the agony. “By terrible things in righteousness,” she wrote, “the Lord seems indeed to have been answering our prayers that He would make us wholly His own.” More than a hundred years earlier, John Woolman, in the midst of his
but note that Trueblood attributed, in part, his interest in Lincoln as theologian to the influence of my great-uncle, Reinhold Niebuhr. The latter, who recognized the singular danger of human pride—especially when expressed through the nation-state—deeply admired Lincoln for his humility and for the fact that his humility did not inhibit his ability to act. Lincoln’s process of “thinking about religion” is nowhere more in evidence than in the statement he wrote, apparently for himself, in the