Curating Spaces of Hope: Transformational leadership for uncertain times

by Matthew Barber-Rowell

Overview

What might a political theology of leadership look like in uncertain times? Curating Spaces of Hope explores how individuals and communities work together to shape and contribute to society in times of pandemic, Brexit, war, and a cost of living crisis, through the exploration and development of local leadership practice underpinned by shared values. Expanding on William Temples’ three key social principles for our own times, Matthew Barber-Rowell suggests 'freedom, relationship, service, affect and authenticity' as critical values which are vital in influencing wider society in troubled times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780334065104
Publisher:	Hymns Ancient & Modern
Publication date:	03/31/2025
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Matthew Barber-Rowell is a research fellow at the William Temple Foundation, and Transformation Support Officer for the Diocese of Manchester

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1 2 Prologue: an Epilogue for the Temple Tradition 13 3 Living with Liminality 35 4 Spaces of Hope 69 5 A Movement of Hope 104 6 Gramsci’s Intellectuals 148 7 Principles for Transformational Leadership 170 8 Shared Values 189 9 Conclusions 205 References 214 Index of Names and Subjects 229

Editorial Reviews

Dr Barber-Rowell makes a thorough case that diverse worldviews belong in public life, shaping and building our shared public spaces. His well-narrated experiences and detailed arguments offer an encouraging and hopeful case for the transformative leadership that he commends.

Sir Stephen Timms

Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell bares his soul in Curating Spaces of Hope. He shares his own pilgrimage of hope through a succession of precarious jobs, highly personal experiences of vulnerability, his pioneering community engagement, his doctoral research in theology, and his postdoctoral work as both a theologian and a social justice activist. He sees himself as co-creating and co-curating spaces of hope with and for other pilgrims on the margins or peripheries. He combines this with exploring the tradition associated with the radical but ultimately establishment figure of Archbishop William Temple in the first half of the twentieth century. This juxtaposition enables Matthew Barber-Rowell to reinterpret or even reinvent the Temple legacy for the first half of this century. This is much needed for the renewal of the Church of England’s leadership but there are plenty of lessons here also for all leaders, all institutions and all who think they are on the peripheries. As chair of the William Temple Foundation and as a former leader of Liverpool Hope University College, another institution which features in this critical study, I can see how Matthew Barber-Rowell’s multiple roles within and beyond this tradition have informed his insights into radical hope. The author’s brave willingness to share his own struggles along the way gives this book a unique style in its integration of autobiography and theology. Congratulations to Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell for a book which has itself become a space of hope.

Simon Lee

This is a pioneering book of exceptional erudition grounded in the applied social science. Barber-Rowell takes us from the hopelessness of unemployment to the creation of spaces of hope. It is an exercise in Christian social ethics that could be defining for the moment in which we live. A must read.

The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham