The Unusual Reign: An Illustration of the Relationship Between Spirituality and Leadership Development in Undergraduates

Traditional four-year universities face challenges in their attempts to articulate a vision of what qualities their student leaders ought to develop over the course of their undergraduate experience. In a narrative of leadership development, The Unusual Reign offers a fictionalized account of how one student leaders’ spiritual growth allows for the cultivation of intellectual virtues. These intellectual virtues result in a capacity for sensemaking, a process by which leaders make sense of their organizations and promote individual and collective growth. The narrative follows Oxford Brickmann, a Resident Advisor whose spiritual combat with God and guilt force him to reevaluate himself, his college community, and his own education in the endeavor to become a wiser leader. In conjunction with other student leaders, Oxford learns how to strengthen the relationships that bring purpose to individual lives and foster community. A novel, The Unusual Reign pulls from studies in virtue epistemology and virtue ethics, students’ spiritual development, higher education research, and organizational theory.