Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

10-30-2015

Department

Business Administration

Keywords

holism, money, wealth, stewardship, value

Abstract

The reputation and, to a lesser degree the practice of business, perhaps more than those of any other institution, suffer from the kind of reductionism that is the stepchild of dualistic and secular thinking. Some business-bashing is deserved, since some businesses operate in a very opportunistic ways, but much of it can be traced back to a misunderstanding of what business is and does. Unfortunately, once we have been fooled into thinking that life can be compartmentalized, and that we can wall off religious beliefs from the rest of life, and that our economic lives belong on the secular side of that wall, we are left with few options for defining or carrying out business activity in a holistic way. We are backed into having to find some “secular purpose” for business, which too often, in a materialistic world, gets reduced to “making money.” Thankfully, businesses can be and often are much more than this!

Comments

Proceeding from the 2015 Annual Conference of the Christian Business Faculty Association held at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, October 29-31, 2015.

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