Tag Archives: leadership

Equipped to Equip: Leadership for the Building of the Body

Posted on June 28, 2026 by nathanalbright

[Note:  This is the prepared text for a split sermon given to the United Church of God congregation in Portland, OR on Sabbath, June 27, 2026.] Part One: “Equipping the Ministry” — The 2026 General Conference of Elders Brethren, I … Continue reading →

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Prolegomenon II — On Civil War as the Ultimate Test of Institutions, and the Leader’s Burden of Sustaining a Cause

Posted on June 17, 2026 by nathanalbright

Part I. The Problem Stated: When the Cushions Are Removed The first prolegomenon ended by pointing beneath the surface of the war—beneath the campaigns and the commanders that have drawn the most attention—to the conditions that decided what the surface … Continue reading →

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Structure Over Personality: Jefferson Davis, the Department System, and the Western Command Problem

Posted on June 16, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The case studies assembled in this volume have proceeded dyad by dyad, treating each relationship between Jefferson Davis and a general as the unit of analysis. This paper deliberately reverses that lens. It asks whether the recurring Confederate failures … Continue reading →

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The Fateful Elevation: Jefferson Davis, John Bell Hood, and the Destruction of the Army of Tennessee

Posted on June 16, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The decision to replace Joseph E. Johnston with John Bell Hood before Atlanta in July 1864, and the catastrophe that followed in Tennessee that winter, together constitute the most consequential single command decision Jefferson Davis made in the Western … Continue reading →

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The Creole Estrangement: Jefferson Davis, P. G. T. Beauregard, and the Cost of Wounded Vanity

Posted on June 15, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The relationship between Jefferson Davis and P. G. T. Beauregard differs from the two Western dyads examined in the preceding studies in both its origin and its trajectory. It began not in a dispute over rank or in doubts … Continue reading →

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Loyalty Against the Grain: Jefferson Davis, Braxton Bragg, and the Limits of Executive Support

Posted on June 15, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The relationship between Jefferson Davis and Braxton Bragg presents the inverse of the Davis–Johnston dysfunction examined in the preceding study. Where Davis withheld trust from a capable general he disliked, he extended sustained support to a general whose capacity … Continue reading →

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The Dysfunctional Dyad: Jefferson Davis, Joseph E. Johnston, and the Anatomy of Mutual Distrust

Posted on June 15, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The relationship between Jefferson Davis and Joseph E. Johnston is the counter-case to the partnership examined in the preceding study. Where Davis and Lee built and maintained a working relationship over three years, Davis and Johnston allowed an early … Continue reading →

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The Functional Partnership: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and the Management of a Working Relationship

Posted on June 15, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract From March 1862 until the end of the war, the relationship between Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee functioned with a smoothness almost unique among Davis’s relations with his senior commanders. This paper treats that partnership as the control … Continue reading →

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White Paper 5: James 3 and the Stricter Judgment of Teachers: Accountability Asymmetry, Speech Ethics, and Leadership Liability

Posted on May 20, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper examines the third chapter of the epistle of James as the most direct apostolic statement of the principle that those who undertake to teach others bear a heightened accountability to God for the office they have assumed. … Continue reading →

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White Paper 4: Priesthood and Shared Standards: Holiness Obligations, Sacrificial Reciprocity, and the Self-Application of Law

Posted on May 20, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper examines the legislation governing the Levitical priesthood in the Pentateuch with attention to a feature that is often overlooked in popular treatments of the topic: the priesthood was bound to standards equal to or more demanding than … Continue reading →

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