Upcoming Book Circle Discussion: February 21, 2026

On February 21, the US-China Catholic Association Book Circle will discuss Terri McNichol's article, "Leadership lessons from landscape painting East and West: Cultivating a spiritual eco-imagination." A long-time Book Circle participant, Terri is an award-winning artist, a Chinese art historian, and president of Ren Associates — a consulting firm dedicated to the creative re-imagining of business education. Her article is available to Book Circle participants along with a separate document of the visual images referenced in the article. 

"Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains," Zhao Mengfu, ca. 1276

As participants read and prepare for the January 31 discussion, they are invited to consider the following discussion prompt from Book Circle facilitator Dr. Kathy Stout:

Terri's article approaches the issue of leadership in the context of our ecological crisis through her deep knowledge of American and Chinese landscape art. As you enter the deep layers of the article, what phrases or sentences command your attention and invite a response? You will have an opportunity to directly interact with Terri at our next meeting. In the meantime, I share with you the following passages that I find particularly powerful and my questions associated with them:

1) Terri quotes Paul Crowther on page 58: "If the world is not to one's liking, we would do well to model the artist who through the beauty of art, transforms base matter and makes visible emergent ideas, that rise above the ordinary and create a reality heretofore unimagined." How does Terri's article help us understand the close affinity between nature, art, creativity, and leadership? How similar is leadership to art?

2) In comparing traditional Chinese landscape art with 19th-century American landscape art, Terri notices a "shared sensibility of the sacredness of place" (p. 50). Do you have a favorite piece of landscape painting that similarly evokes a sense of the sacredness, enchantment, power, and awe of the universe?

3) Speaking of the aesthetic power of Chinese landscape (wenrenhua) paintings, Terri remarks that "both painter and viewer were able to see what is not there--the invisible" (p. 56). She further explains the effect of this seeing: "the ability to bring forth with an embodied sincerity, the quintessential trait of a true individual of the Way, the one who hits the mark without effort. For it is sincerity that enables humans to live in social harmony with the world." "Sincerity" in this context is a Confucian virtue of foundational importance. How do you understand its significance in relation to creativity, aesthetic power, spiritual cultivation, and the role of leadership?

The discussion will be held virtually via Zoom at 6AM PT / 7AM MT / 8AM CT / 9AM ET / 10PM Chinese Standard Time. If you have not yet joined us for a Book Circle discussion, please sign up for Book Circle email updates today, and invite your friends to do the same!

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