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Business for the Common Good
Paperback
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- Length: 288 pages
- Dimensions: 6 × 9 in
- Published: February 01, 2011
- Imprint: IVP Academic
- ISBN: 9780830828166
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Is business just a way to make money? Or can the marketplace a venue for service to others?
Scott B. Rae and Kenman L. Wong seek to explore this and other critical business issues from a uniquely Christian perspective, offering up a vision for work and service that is theologically grounded and practically oriented. Among the specific questions they address along the way are these:
- What implications does the Christian story have for the vision, mission or sense of purpose that shapes business engagement?
- What parts of business can be affirmed and practiced "as is" and what parts need to be rejected or transformed?
- What challenges exist as attempts are made to live out Christian ideals in a broken world characterized by tight margins, fierce competition and short-term investor pressures?
- How do Christian values inform specific functional areas of business such as the management of people, marketing and environmental sustainability?
Business can be even more than an environment through which individual Christians grow in Christlikeness. In this book you'll discover how it can also be a means toward serving the common good.
About the Series
The Christian Worldview Integration Series, edited by J. P. Moreland and Francis J. Beckwith, seeks to promote a robust personal and conceptual integration of Christian faith and learning, with textbooks focused on disciplines including psychology, literature, politics, communications, and business.
"Kenman Wong and Scott Rae have again joined forces to compile a veritable treasure-trove for anyone wishing to make fruitful connections between business and Christianity. They present compellingarguments for a fresh vision of business as transformational service for the common good. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the shape of a calling, marketing and emerging directions in business."Dr. Richard Higginson, lecturer in Christian ethics and director of Faith in Business, Ridley Hall Theological College, Cambridge University
"Christians in secular businesses and students heading in that direction will be better equipped to glorify God by taking to heart this book?s portrayal of business as transformational service for the common good. Christians new to thinking theologically about business will receive a cogent primer on first principles while those who have been pondering faith and business for some time will learn from chapters that tackle more complicated subjects such as marketing and environmental sustainability. I am especially pleased to see the authors? biblical support for ideas that challenge conventional evangelical Christian thinking about business--from the idea that business has positive and not just negative effects on spiritual formation tothe idea that the need for transformation is both personal and institutional."Stephen N. Bretsen, Volkman Associate Professor of Business and Law, Wheaton College
"Kenman Wong and Scott Rae have followed up their best-in-class business ethics textbook, Beyond Integrity, with a superb, comprehensive reflection on work and business within a biblical Christian worldview. They stand on the shoulders of their colleagues and predecessors and take the discussion to a new level. A wonderful guide for business practitioners as well as their academic and pastoral colleagues."David W. Gill, Ph.D., Mockler-Phillips Professor of Workplace Theology and Business Ethics, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary
"The authors of Business for the Common Good have masterfully challenged the reader to rethink the 'calling' of business in order to achieve divine purposes in the world through transformational service. They skillfully explain the need for biblically-based ideals and frameworks to provide an inspiring vision for business. In today's global business economy, the reader is brought to the realization that there are two distinct bottom lines: economic and social. A must-read!"Harold Taber, former president CEO and current board member, Hansen Beverage Co., and former group president, Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Los Angeles
"Nothing in this book prevents it enriching the lives of Hindus such as myself--or, as far as I can see, those of Buddhists, Muslims, agnostics or atheists! If you want to understand business from a spiritual, ethical or indeed simply humane point of view, this is a great book with which to get a perspective on today's issues, challenges and opportunities."Professor Prabhu Guptara, member of the board, Institute of Management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
"Is business a legitimate arena in which Christians might work out their calling? Wong and Rae answer that question clearly, neither simplifying the message of Scripture nor avoiding the messy complexities of the business world. This is a book without answers or checklists. Rather, it asks readers to own the questions at the heart of business, to develop guidelines for action, to create boundaries within which individual and corporate transformation and service can flourish. This is a book to be read by students pondering a call to serve, by pastors tempted to dismiss business as institutionalized greed, and by business men and women seeking to follow Jesus. Business for the Common Good is informative, challenging and hopeful."Walter C. Wright Jr., executive director, Max De Pree Center for Leadership
"I have just finished reading Wong and Rae's Business for the Common Good and I heartily recommend it. The book is both well-written and well-researched. It features a welcome mix of contemporary research and practice, and biblical ideas that have been helpfully grounded in their historical socioeconomic context. I especially applaud the thoughtful format of the book, as each chapter starts with a real-world problem that engages readers and then respectfully provides differing perspectives on the issue. In this way each chapter compels readers to reflect deeply on how to integrate faith and work. I think the book would be especially well-suited to stimulate meaningful discussion in small group and classroom settings."Bruno Dyck, Ph.D., professor of management, Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba
"Business for the Common Good is a must-read for all people of faith that participate in the world of business. Kenman Wong and Scott Rae skillfully tackle the many dilemmas facing business people, offering a fresh faith-perspective on topics such as business as a calling, wealth and ambition, the global economy, marketing, ethics, stewardship and corporate social responsibility. The book is extensively researched and presents a nuanced viewpoint that challenges the reader to rethinkpreconceived positions. The numerous actual stories and anecdotes that Rae and Wong offer will resonate with the reader and illustrate the complexity of integrating faith in business. The final chapter, with moving examples such as Broetje Orchards, will inspire the reader to embrace a vision for business as a transformational service for the common good. If you read only one book on faith integration and business, Business for the Common Good should be it."Brian Porter, Ph.D., professor of management, Hope College
CONTENTS
Series Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Your Work Is an Altar
2 The Shape of a Calling to Business
3 Business and Spiritual Formation
4 Wealth, Success and Ambition
5 The Calling of Business in the Global Economy
6 Ethics in the Workplace
7 Leadership and Management: Serving Employees
8 Marketing: Serving Customers
9 Stewardship and Sustainability: Serving The Garden and Our Neighbors
10 Emerging Directions in Business
Conclusion
Subject Index
Scripture Index
