I have noticed an echo of the Catholic Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) in most organizations, including the Catholic church. But then again, maybe its just me.
These trinities I describe as Theorist, Administer, and Applicator.
In the above example, The Holy Ghost is the Theorist--intangible and all guiding basis behind everything else. The Father is the administrator, or the rule maker and law giver that not only connects the theory to the everyday application, but also ensures its ability to run in the real world. The Son is the Applicator--the person who applies the theory to individuals. He makes it personal and real in our world.
In physics we have Theorists who try to decipher the univers, Administrators who promote, demote, fund and create the experiments that prove the theories, and we have the Applicators--engineers who turn theory into practical everyday applications.
In a church we have Theorists who develop the underlying ideals of belief (these can range from St. Thomas Aquinas to the present Pope to the LDS leadership). We also have the local priest, minister, Rabbi etc who takes that theory, and the administrative policies and dogma, and applies it to the everyday lives of the people in their hands. Finally we have the administrative branch that makes sure the local minister is well funded, is applying theory correctly, that basically runs the church like a practical business.
Which part of the Trinity is least important? None.
Without the theory you have no basis for the rest of the organization.
Without the administration the theory is forgotten and never implemented.
Without the applicators the theory never reaches reality, the people.
And yet I have seen people disregard the administration's importance way to often. I have also seen poor administration ruin a wonderful theory and its application.
I have seen business with wonderful ideas and great people go bankrupt because they did not know how to run themselves--see the Dot-Com boom for examples.
The Catholic church in the US is being hurt because, while it has strong theorists and wonderful priests bringing the message to the people, it had a horrendous administrative function that allowed abuses that can not be tolerated.
I think the problem with the Administrative part of the trinity, why it gets so little respect, is that occasionally the administrators try to take over the positions of Theorists or Applicator.
This often leads to disaster. When a beaurocrat tries to work with individuals, they try to force the individuals to their beaurocratic standards. The individuals resent it.
When a beaurocrat tries to work as a theorist, they tried to guide the theory to the present beaurocracy instead of guiding the beaurocracy to a good theory.
Historically, the worst of the Popes where administrators who saw the Papal throne as just another step on the Beaurocratic ladder, to gain power and prestige without the need for good theory.
The worst ministers are those more concerned about the running of the church than about the individuals who go there.
Schools have professors and experts who tell the world how kids should learn. They have administrators who allow teachers to teach, and they have teachers who work with the kids to show them how to learn.
A bad theorist results in no learning. A bad teacher results in a class that doesn't learn. But worse, a bad administration keeps bad teachers in favor of upsetting thier procedures and forces theories on the students that do not so much as improve learning, but as to make their administration easier.
Are these observatins silly, or have others seen them in operation?
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Some social anthropologists have shown that in any small hunting group (not sure if this has broader applications) there are always set roles that are filled: Leader, Shaman, Comic Relief, and Bully. I think those are the 4, paraphrased of course. What's funny is that if 1 guy leaves a role (absent that day, sick, dead, whatever) the roles shift around, so yesterday's Sidekick can become tomorrow's Shaman.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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