Abstract

The present study conducted an exegetical inquiry of agape (Melé in Leadership through the Classics. Springer, 2012) leadership by probing the following attributes of loving leaders: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. The Bible has much to say about agape love, and in particular, it has specific instructions concerning applying the attributes of loving leaders set forth above. Using socio-rhetorical criticismsocio-rhetorical criticism (Robbins in Exploring the texture of texts: A guide to socio-rhetorical interpretation, Bloomsbury Academic, 1996), an exegetical study of ten pericopes provided a panoramic emersion into the scriptural support for the attributes of loving leaders. Many of the five major elements of socio-rhetorical interpretation were used, including inner texture, intertexture, social and cultural texture, ideological texture, and sacred texture. The research question is: What does it mean to become an agape leader? The attributes of loving leaders such as compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience were examined from a biblical worldview and applied to contemporary leadership to answer the research question. The study found that a careful examination of the attributes of a loving leader answers the research question: Agape leadership embodies the attributes of loving leaders. The significance of the study offers a baseline understanding of agape leadership and provides other researchers a launching point for further research.