L. Gregory Jones, Ph.D., dean of Duke Divinity School and Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Jr. Distinguished Professor of Theology and Christian Ministry, has co-authored a new book on cultivating a mindset of traditioned innovation for more faithful and fruitful living and more vibrant institutions.

The book, Navigating the Future: Traditioned Innovation for Wilder Seas, was published by Abingdon Press in January 2021. It was co-authored by Andrew P. Hogue, Ph.D., the founding director of the Baylor Social Innovation Collaborative, director of the Philanthropy and Public Service Program, and senior lecturer in the Honors College at Baylor University.

The authors demonstrate how traditioned innovation is a habit of being and living that cultivates a certain kind of moral imagination shaped by storytelling and expressed in creative, transformational action. Moral imagination is about character, which depends on ongoing formation that takes place in friendships and communities that embody traditions and that are sustained by institutions.

While there is no quick-fix or set of techniques to create a mindset of traditioned innovation, Navigating the Future shows readers how they can learn to cultivate it by becoming immersed in an imaginative engagement with the story of God told through Scripture; learning from exemplary institutions, communities, and people practicing traditioned innovation; and discovering new skills for integrating character formation and dense networks of friendships, communities, and institutions into your leadership and life.

A noted scholar, teacher, and church leader, Jones is the author or editor of 18 books and has published more than 200 articles and essays. His books include Christian Social Innovation: Renewing Wesleyan Witness and the acclaimed Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis. Jones also coauthored the book Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven with Celestin Musekura and another book with Kevin R. Armstrong, Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry.

Jones previously served as executive vice president and provost at Baylor University. Prior to that he was senior strategist for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School, where he served as senior strategist for the Fuqua-Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He also served as dean of Duke Divinity from 1997 to 2010 and returned to the position in 2018.