Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The paradox of the Biblical Servant Leadership and American Presidency in the context of American Evangelical Christianity

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Servant Leadership

  • 14 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter addresses biblical, theological, and social-psychological reasoning for the rise of authoritarianism and nationalism within the American Evangelical communities in the United States today. Has the American presidency as an image of the imperial ruler and a messianic figure been mystified to an extent that dictatorship is inevitable “to rule all the nations with a rod of iron”? (Revelation 12:5, NRSV). If so, how is this image of leadership reconciled with the image of the Suffering Servant (Isiah 53) and the Son of Man who sat down once with his Twelve Disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35 NRSV)? Further, how is dictatorship reconciled with the evangelical identity of servanthood and sacrifice? Servant leadership and social-psychology research may shed some light on the potential danger of authoritarianism and the contrast between the New Testament concept of servanthood and human hunger for leadership power, a thirst for obedience, and a desire for submission to authoritarian leaders. Attempts have been made to understand the distinctions between American evangelicals, fundamentalism, civil religion, and Christian nationalism. Attempts have also been made to understand the paradox of why most evangelicals overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump, who showed the least servant leadership characteristics as an American president, and what were the biblical servant leadership justifications for evangelicals to vote for him. In the conclusion section, recommendations have been made for further study and research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aho, J. (2020). Revisiting authoritarianism. Critical Sociology, 46(3), 329–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Åkerlund, T. (2015). Son, sent, and servant: Johannine perspectives on servant leadership theory. Scandinavian Journal for Leadership and Theology, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthony, M. (2016). Exclusive Interview with Dr. James Dobson – Did Donald Trump Recently Accept Christ? Courage Matters: Ignite your Life.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, M. E., & Lindholm, K. (2003). Tocqueville and the rhetoric of civil religion in the presidential inaugural addresses. Christian Scholar’s Review, 32(3), 259–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett-Fox, R. (2018). A King Cyrus President: How Donald Trump’s presidency reasserts conservative Christians’ right to hegemony. Humanity & Society, 42(4), 502–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bean, L. (2014). The politics of Evangelical identity. Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bebbington, D. (2003). Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (1st ed.). Taylor and Francis.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Beecher, L. (1828). The Memory of Our Father (1827). Printed in Sermons delivered on various occasions. Boston: T.R. Marvin, pp. 296–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. N. (2005). Civil religion in America. Daedalus, 134(4), 40–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. N. (1967). Civil Religion in America. Daedalus 96: 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bieber, K., & Beyers, J. (2020). The Allegiance of White American Evangelicals to Donald Trump. Exchange, 49(2), 145–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bielo, J. S. (2011a). City of man, city of God: The re-urbanization of American evangelicals. City & Society, 23, 2–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bielo, J. S. (2011b). Emerging Evangelicals. New York University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brittain, C. C. (2018). Racketeering in religion: Adorno and evangelical support for Donald Trump. Critical Research on Religion, 6(3), 269–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonhoeffer, D. (2012). The Cost of Discipleship. Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, J. E., & Van Kley, D. K. (2001). Eds. Religion and Politics in Enlightenment Europe. University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, J. E. (2008). Evangelical–A most abused word. Theology News & Notes. Fuller Theological Seminary, 55(1), 4–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brawley, A. (2012). When Will the Christian Right Return to the Teachings of Their Gospel? Huffington Post, March 11 (www.huffingtonpost.com/allan-brawley/will-christian-right-return-to-social-gospel_b_1333327.html). Retrieved on April 27, 2022.

  • Burger, J. M. (2009). Replicating Milgram: Would people still obey today? American Psychology, 64, 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chaleff, I. (2009). The courageous follower (3rd ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J., & Myers, B. (1988). The Power of Myth. Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delehanty, J., Edgell, P., & Stewart, E. (2019). Christian America? Secularized evangelical discourse and the boundaries of national belonging. Social Forces, 97(3), 1283–1306.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denker, A. (2019). Red State Christians: Understanding the voters who elected Donald Trump. Fortress Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Du Mez, K. K. (2020). Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a Nation. Liveright Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, D. J. (2012). Voting My Religion: Hypocrisy of the “Christian Right,” Huffington Post, June 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durbin, S. (2020). From King Cyrus to Queen Esther: Christian Zionists’ discursive construction of Donald Trump as God’s instrument. Critical Research on Religion, 8(2), 115–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fea, J. (2018a). Evangelical Fear Elected Trump. The Atlantic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fea, J. (2018b). Believe me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1921). Groups psychology and the analysis of the ego. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete works of Sigmund Freud. Beyond the pleasure principle, group psychology and other works (Vol. 28, pp. 65–143). Hogarth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (1922). Le Bon’s description of the group mind. In S. Freud & J. Strachey (Eds.), Group psychology and the analysis of the ego (pp. 5–22). Boni and Liveright.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, Y. (1997). Meeting God: When organizational members come face to face with the supreme leader. Human Relations, 50(4), 315–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasaway, B. W. (2019). Making Evangelicals great again? American Evangelicals in the age of Trump. In Evangelical Review of Theology: A Global Forum, 43(4), 293–311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorski, P. (2017). Why Evangelicals Voted for Trump: A Critical Cultural Sociology. American Journal of Cultural Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-017-0043-9.

  • Gorski, P. S. (2018). Christianity and democracy after Trump. Political Theology, 19(5), 361–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorski, P. S. (2020). American Babylon: Christianity and democracy before and after Trump. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Guth, J. L., & Bradberry, L. A. (2013). Religion in the 2012 Election. The American Elections of 2012, 190–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guth, J. L. (2019). Are white evangelicals populists? The view from the 2016 American National Election Study. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 17(3), 20–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenleaf, R. K. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haney, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1973). A Study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison. Office of Naval Research, 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., Millard, K., & McDonald, R. (2015). ‘Happy to have been of service’: The Yale archive as a window into the engaged followership of participants in Milgram’s ‘obedience’ experiments. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(1), 55–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, S. A., & Reicher, S. D. (2012). Contesting the “nature” of conformity: What Milgram and Zimbardo’s studies really show. PloS Biology, 10(11).

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes, J. (2021). Donald Trump, the Christian right and COVID-19: The politics of religious freedom. Laws, 10(1), 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henning, S. (2020). A systems theoretical servant-leadership framework with reference to Christianity and positive psychology. Pharos Journal of Theology, 101, 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogg, M. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5(3), 184–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hogg, M. A. (2008). Social identity processes and the empowerment of followers. In R. E. Riggio, I. Chaleff, & J. Lipman-Blumen (Eds.), The art of followership: How great followers create great leaders and organizations (pp. 267–276). Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holder, R. W., & Josephson, P. B. (2020). Donald Trump, White Evangelicals, and 2020: A Challenge for American Pluralism. Society, 57(5), 540–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, A. J. (2012). The servant lord: A word of caution regarding the munus triplex in Karl Barth’s theology and the church today. Scottish Journal of Theology, 65(2), 159–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, G. W. (2012). A theological comparison between social science models and a biblical perspective of servant leadership. Dissertation. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. & Piccolo, R. (2004).Transformational and transactional leadership: A Meta-Analytic Test of Their Relative Validity, Journal of Applied Psychology, 5, 755–768.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kehoe, A. B. (2012). Militant Christianity: An anthropological history. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kellerman, B. (2014). Hard times: Leadership in America. Stanford Business Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, R. E. (1992). The power of followership. Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kidd, T. S. (2019). Who is an Evangelical? Yale University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lagouranis, D. (2007). Fear up harsh: An army interrogator’s dark journey through Iraq. Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laub, J. A. (1999). Assessing the servant organization: Development of the Organizational Leadership Assessment. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 23, 145–157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C. S. (2001). Mere Christianity. Zondervan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. E. (2019). Old Testament view of Robert Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership Theory. Journal of Biblical Perspective on Leadership, 9, 304–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipman-Blumen, J. (2008). Following toxic leaders: In search of posthumous praise. In R. E. Riggio, I. Chaleff, & J. Lipman-Blumen (Eds.), The art of followership: How great followers create great leaders and organizations (pp. 181–194). Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynerd, B. T. (2014). Republican theology: The Civil Religion of American Evangelicals. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Malakyan, P. G. (1998). Christ-like leadership: Theological and missiological foundations for leadership and development (an Armenian case study). Dissertation. Fuller Theological Seminary, School of World Mission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Margolis, M. F. (2020). Who wants to make America great again? Understanding evangelical support for Donald Trump. Politics and Religion, 13(1), 89–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marti, G. (2019). The unexpected orthodoxy of Donald J. Trump: White evangelical support for the 45th President of the United States. Sociology of Religion, 80(1), 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride, J. (2021). Authoritarianism and Religion: Trump and White American Evangelicals in cultural perspective. The GCAS Review-Journal, Volume I, 1, 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrath, A. (1995). Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity. InterVarsity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. HarperPerennial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, R. R. (2012). Toward a biblical understanding of servant leadership: An examination of biblical concepts of servanthood in Isaiah’s Servant Songs. Dissertation, Dallas Baptist University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niebuhr, H. R. (1951). Christ and culture. Harper and Brothers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niewold, J. (2007). Beyond servant leadership. Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership, 1(2), 118–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niewold, J. W. (2006). Incarnational leadership: Towards a distinctly Christian theory of leadership. Ph.D. dissertation, Regent University.

    Google Scholar 

  • (OLA) model. Dissertation Abstracts International, 60 (02): 308A (UMI No. 9921922).

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, K. A. (2003). Servant leadership: A theoretical model. Dissertation. Regent University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, S. L., & Whitehead, A. L. (2015a). Christian Nationalism and White Racial Boundaries: Examining Whites’ Opposition to Interracial Marriage. Ethnic and Racial Studies 38: 1671–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, S. L., & Whitehead, A. L. (2015b). Christian Nationalism, Racial Separatism, and Family Formation: Attitudes toward Transracial Adoption as a Test Case. Race and Social Problems 7: 123–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pew. (2016). Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org

  • Reicher, S. D., Haslam, S. A., & Smith, J. R. (2012). Working toward the experimenter: Reconceptualizing obedience within Milgram paradigm as identification-based followership. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 315–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, R. F., & Stone, A. G. (2002). A review of servant leadership attributes: Developing a practical model.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sipe, J. W., & Frick, D. M. (2015). Seven pillars of servant leadership: Practicing the wisdom of leading by serving. Mahwah: Paulist.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sendjaya, S., & Sarros, J. C. (2002). Servant leadership: Its origin, development, and application in organizations. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 9(2), 57–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, P. W. (2006). Vulnerable authority: A theological approach to leadership and teamwork. Christian Education Journal, 3(1), 119–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, B. G., & Johnson, B. (2010). The liberalization of young evangelicals: a research note. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 49, 351–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spears, L. C. (1995). Reflections on leadership: How Robert K. Greenleaf’s theory of servant-leadership influenced today’s top management thinkers. New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steensland, B., & Goff, P. (Eds.). (2013). The New Evangelical social engagement. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steensland, B., & Wright, E. L. (2014). American Evangelicals and conservative politics: Past, present, and future. Sociology Compass, 8(6), 705–717.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stott, J. (2021). The cross of Christ. InterVarsity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sweeney, D. A. (2005). The American Evangelical story: A history of the movement. Baker Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, B. (2015). Servant, leader, or BOTH?: A fresh look at Mark. Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, 9(2), 54–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dierendonck, D. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1228–1261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallis, P. (2005). God’s politics: Why the right gets it wrong and the left doesn’t get it. .

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, A. L., Perry, S. L., & Baker, J. O. (2018). Make America Christian again: Christian nationalism and voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Sociology of Religion, 79(2), 147–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, K. K. (2012). Between God and green: How Evangelicals are cultivating a middle ground on climate change. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilsey, J. D. (2015). American exceptionalism and civil religion: Reassessing the history of an idea. InterVarsity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodberry, R. D. (2012). The missionary roots of liberal democracy. American political science review, 106(2), 244–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodberry, R. D. (2004). The Shadow of Empire: Christian Missions, Colonial Policy, and Democracy in Post-colonial Societies. Ph.D. dissertation. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wuthnow, R. (2021). The restructuring of American religion. Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yukl, G. (2018). Leadership in Organizations, 9th edition. Pearson Education India.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Morris University, Moon Township, PA, USA

    Petros G. Malakyan

Authors
  1. Petros G. Malakyan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Petros G. Malakyan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA, USA

    Satinder K. Dhiman

  2. Robertson School of Government, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, USA

    Gary E. Roberts

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Malakyan, P.G. (2022). The paradox of the Biblical Servant Leadership and American Presidency in the context of American Evangelical Christianity. In: Dhiman, S.K., Roberts, G.E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Servant Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69802-7_12-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69802-7_12-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69802-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-69802-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation