Public Leadership Ethics in Indonesia: A Christian Ethical Reading of Proverbs 16 in Dialogue with Pancasila

Abstract

This article examines the ethical foundations of public leadership in Indonesia through a normative-dialogical Christian ethical reading of Proverbs 16 in conversation with Pancasila, the philosophical foundation of the Indonesian state. Recognising the historical and political distance between the royal context of ancient Israel and Indonesia's contemporary democratic order, the study situates Proverbs 16 within its literary and socio-historical horizon before engaging it in critical dialogue with Pancasila. Drawing upon biblical wisdom literature and contemporary Christian ethics, the article explores key themes of divine sovereignty, humility, justice, moral accountability, and responsible governance while also considering institutional responsibility and structural justice within a plural public sphere. Rather than treating Proverbs 16 and Pancasila as mutually reinforcing moral traditions, the study argues that each tradition both enriches and critically challenges the other. This reciprocal dialogue yields a normative Christian ethical framework for evaluating public leadership that integrates moral accountability, character formation, institutional responsibility, and the common good without collapsing the distinction between biblical theology and Indonesia's plural democratic context. In doing so, the article contributes to contemporary Christian ethics by demonstrating how biblical wisdom can participate constructively in public moral reasoning within a religiously diverse society.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Studies in Christian Ethics, 2026 · DOI ↗