Article January 10, 1914 Issue

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R. A. Dunlap

[Rev. R. A. Dunlap in Hartford Seminary Record]

Now the source of all I have to say is a certain deep and growing conviction of mine; namely, the conviction that the greatest help toward understanding spiritual leadership lies in trying to understand the spiritual leadership of Jesus. This is not to underrate what may be gained from a study of the spiritual leadership of other men, but to say that the suggestions gained from such study have their deepest significance and greatest value as a kind of commentary upon his spiritual leadership whose example and gospel have been the greatest personal force contributing to the uplift of mankind. And out of the inexhaustible treasury afforded by his example, I would select the suggestion arising from the union of the divine and the human in Jesus, as related to his leadership.

When I speak now of the divine in Jesus, I am not thinking of the deity of Jesus; nor am I raising hard theological questions. I am thinking of his awareness of the Father; I am thinking of his prayers; I am thinking of his sense of the divine meanings of things; I am thinking how he saw the temporal in terms of the eternal, the finite in terms of the infinite; I am thinking of the harmony of his every word and thought with the Father's will; I am thinking how he discovered in the hearts and in the affairs of men, intimations of the kingdom of heaven. I am thinking, in a word, of the spirituality of Jesus, and of the spiritual quality and meaning which this gave to his leadership who had so many qualities of leadership.

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