Applied and practical philosophy of responsible leadership in the book of Nehemiah

The Book of Nehemiah shows the role of the responsible leadership in restoration of spiritual, ritualistic, economic, administrative and military spheres of public life. While the Book of Nehemiah is well known and has long been examined in American biblical studies, in particular as a manual for leaders, in russian academia this part of the Holy Scripture often remains in shadow of other historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament. The aim of this article is to offer a political and philosophical review of Nehemiah’s activity during the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after Babylonian captivity as an example of responsible performance of leader’s duties. The article uses several political and philosophic concepts related to leadership (Confucianism, legalism, teachings of Aristotle, Machiavelli and locke) to stress the importance of responsible performance by leaders of their duties in the context of the common good.