Wisdom, the highest level of enlightenment, is noticeably rare among leaders and society at large. Wisdom is critical if leaders and followers are to lead and follow well. Stories of leaders’ lack of discernment and sound judgment abound throughout history and all too often in current events. The three presenters bring their philosophical, theological, and social science backgrounds to unpack the nature of wisdom from the respective traditions and synthesize what the three traditions have in common when it comes to wisdom.   

Comments such as “what were they thinking?” and “why did they do that?” reveal that wisdom is often painfully lacking when it comes to making decisions and exercising leadership. A primary reason that wisdom is not as common as it could and should be is because most people do not understand what wisdom is and consequently how to acquire, practice, and teach it.  

Philosophers, theologians, and social scientists have not made the topic easily accessible for others to understand. Philosophers, the so-called experts on wisdom, are often too lengthy and abstract in their teachings on wisdom. Theologians, the so-called masters of wisdom, make it sound like it is only for the religiously motivated and enlightened. Social scientists, so-called students of wisdom, tend to be overly technical and almost formulaic in their attempts to quantify and qualify wisdom.  

What is amazing is that each tradition teaches similar things about the nature of wisdom, something often missed for reasons just cited. Unsurprisingly, an accurate, clear, and useful model of wisdom emerges when the teaching and research on wisdom from the philosophical, theological, and empirical traditions are integrated.  

This presentation explores the nature of wisdom from the philosophical, theological, and empirical perspectives and synthesizes the learning into a simple and cohesive model for students, parents, educators, professionals, leaders, and everyone else to understand, acquire, practice, and teach wisdom.