I started reading “The Artisan Soul” by Erwin McManus. It is a great book and I would recommend to anyone who is interested in creativity and design, whether you are a Christian or not. McManus sees us as “inherently creative beings” who live with “the fear that if we aspire to be more we will discover ourselves to be less.” For him, to live is to create; and to create is to embrace risk. He notes, “[t]he past will be our future until we have the courage to create a new one.” This is exactly the point of path creation and institutional entrepreneurship. And, for him, everyone should strive to be creative and the most important creative outcome should be our own lives. The quality that we strive for is not “great” but “good”. He notes, “[g]reat is about execution and achievement; good is about essence and ethos.” We all should aspire to do great work, he argues, without neglecting the importance of being inspired by all that is good and beautiful. In that sense, the Artisan Soul is a “good” book.
The Artisan Soul
