Humilitas by John Dickson
Summary
John Dickson's book Humilitas is a compelling read for leaders in both church and secular contexts. His unique approach, using a blend of ancient and modern stories to illustrate his points, makes this book both engaging and thought-provoking.
Dickson starts his book by defining humility and showing how it is important for a leader. He points out that humility is not humiliation, which both words come from the same Latin root, but rather "the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself," or simply put, "a willingness to hold power in service of others."[1] When this definition of humility is applied to leadership, a leader becomes a great leader.
After discussing humility, he examines how humility fits within a leadership context. To do this, he first breaks down what a leader has, such as ability, authority, persuasion, and example. In a later chapter, he also points out humility is beautiful to those who see it. Most people are attracted to humility just as they are turned off by arrogance.
Dickson also takes time to look at the ancient world's view on humility. He showed that the ancient world was not fond of this idea of humility since they viewed humility as humiliation or being brought low, which has been negative since then. One of the reasons this was so, within the ancient world, is because of their "honor-shame culture." They valued honor more than anything else and despised shame just as much. So, they viewed humility as shame and something to be avoided. Throughout history, we can see how some philosophers tried to change this idea of humility but never ultimately worked until a carpenter from Nazareth radically changed the world's view, especially the Western world's view, on humility.
Dickson finishes his book by looking at how humility can persuade people, not in a negative sense but in a positive. A leader’s job is to convince people or move people forward, and one of the ways to do this is by being humble. People, as mentioned before, are attracted to humility. When they see humility in their leader's life, it motivates them to do more and try harder. If their leader lived a life of arrogance, it would be more harmful to the workplace than helpful.
Critique
Dickson's book was well-thought-out, using many different illustrations and stories from ancient to modern times to clarify his point. As a historian, he could approach the topic of leadership uniquely. He is a master at drawing the right story at the right time.
He also had a very unique writing style that is often hard to find within Christian authors. He could write in such a way that it would be accepted by both the Christian and secular worldviews, the only exception being the Atheistic worldview. Some may say he spent too much time straddling the fence and should have picked one side instead, but I do not wholly agree with that thought. The reason is his audience. He is writing to much more than just a Christian audience. He approaches it more as an author who is a Christian than a Christian author. In doing so, he can reach out to more people than he could have if he had chosen one specific group, especially since he is writing to anyone in a leadership position, not just someone in a church leadership position. So, in writing this way, he seems to have been able not to offend even the most conservative Christians while also not offending the most secular groups, excluding the atheists.
Bibliography
John Dickson. Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011.
