I have made some recent posts about the new book I am writing with Mike Naughton from the University of St. Thomas. It comes out of the work we did developing a class that examined the process of starting and building a business from the perspective of Christian social teaching. The class won a national award (as an entrepreneurship class) and resulted in the two of us writing several scholarly pieces related to our work together. Too often traditional approaches to business ethics are from a legalistic or a morally relativistic perspective. We believe that morality should guide our ethical decisions.
Our book brings the message of how faith can inform, guide and ground the formation and development of new ventures, to the entrepreneurs who are leading today’s entrepreneurial economy. We offer entrepreneurs both a moral perspective and practical tools that they can use in their businesses. We organize the book around the four cardinal virtues from Aquinas: Justice, Prudence, Courage, and Temperance.
Justice can come to life through innovative compensation, benefit, and profit-sharing programs. What we accomplish in our businesses is only because of the support and efforts of many other people who deserve a share of our successes. Prudence is practiced by being intentionally careful stewards of the gifts we have to work with — our talents, other people’s money, the labor of our workers, and so forth. Courage is not just the intestinal fortitude to start the business, but staying true to our vision and values to build a better place to work and become a profitable business. Temperance is understanding our wholeness as people. As I wrote a few weeks ago, there is a risk in viewing your career as a noun.
We want to find a business publisher for this book, but there seems to be an uneasiness with overtly bringing God and faith into how we do our work as entrepreneurs. I have heard this uneasiness, this uncomfortableness, in the voices of some of the editors as we have explained our book.
This agnosticism also applies to how others think we should live our lives in today’s culture. The jounalist Fred Barnes recently told a story about a famous liberal who came face to face with the reality that many want God out of our culture:
Back in the early 1990s when I was still at The New Republic, I was invited to a dinner in Washington with Mario Cuomo. He was then governor of New York, and had invited several reporters to dinner because he was thinking about running for president. At one point that night he mentioned that he sent his children to Catholic schools in New York because he wanted them to be taught about a God-centered universe. This was in the context of expressing his whole-hearted support for public schools. But from the reaction, you would have thought he had said that one day a week he would bring out the snakes in his office and make policy decisions based on where they bit him. He was subsequently pummeled with stories about how improper it was for him, one, to send his kids to religious schools, and two, to talk about it. (Imprimis, Hillsdale College).
Our values and our faith should inform our actions because all that we do, be it in our families, our businesses, or our communities, shape our character. I know we will soon find a good publisher, but it is sad that in our culture we have become so quick to compartmentalize God and faith from everyday life.
I don’t think what is disturbing is bringing God in the business, but religion. And people might have that wrong assumption about your book. Well, I don’t know your book yet and I can only guess here.
As an atheist – by personnal choice, not by culture as my first name implies – I find religions to be obtrusive in the business field. But I do believe human beings need a moral code, which is mostly provided by religions, but can also come from within, from good virtues.
The idea of God itself implies a separation, a schism between different religions. For example, there is an absolute difference between Catholics and Protestants on the matter of succes and money.
And faith also implies some problematic distortions of reality when facing adverse or hostile situations. One might rely on God, as he/she should really rely on him/herself to overcome business difficulties.
Moral (philosophy), not faith, participates in building strong character, I believe.
Judaism. Christianity. Islamism.
Do they all offer valuable contribution to business ethics?
If it is the purpose of the book to speak of only Christian beliefs, then this would be for the Christian audience. In a flat world, would it be more appropriate to be religiously inclusive or more secular?
Totally agree with what you are trying to do,good luck with getting the book published,you are not alone in you beliefs,I am in the process of trying to start a new business,But wish to build it around good christian standards,God bless.