Baptizing BusinessPub Date : 2020-08-20DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190055776.003.0004
Bradley C. Smith
{"title":"Affirmative Religion","authors":"Bradley C. Smith","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055776.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055776.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Evangelical Christians are typically known for what they oppose, often taking hard-line stances against certain behaviors. Yet trends in the character of both American business and American religion enable evangelical executives to affirm the spiritual value of business and the choices required of business leaders. Evangelicalism is an individualistic religious tradition, encouraging spiritual improvisation, including personally interpreting the Bible. The Bible, in turn, is sufficiently diverse and ambiguous as to support all manner of priorities and perspectives. Paralleling this diversity, the panoply of stakeholder interests urged on companies by proponents of corporate social responsibility presents an array of possible contributions on which to base the spiritual worth of business. While evangelicalism, like religion more broadly, is often understood to be self-consistent, characterized by proscriptions and prohibitions, and rigidly dogmatic, in fact it is flexible, adaptable, often incoherent, and abundantly capable of affirming institutions and activities, including business.","PeriodicalId":239690,"journal":{"name":"Baptizing Business","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124992161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Baptizing BusinessPub Date : 2020-08-20DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190055776.003.0006
Bradley C. Smith
{"title":"Islands of Influence","authors":"Bradley C. Smith","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055776.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055776.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"While some are wary of concerted attempts by well-connected evangelicals to advance a religious agenda in corporate contexts, evangelical executives demonstrate little desire to turn companies into explicitly “Christian” organizations or to transform the core values and objectives toward which businesses are oriented, or indeed much evidence that there is any shared agenda around which they might coalesce. While the Social Gospel movement of the early twentieth century—a precursor to contemporary emphases on faith at work—was concerned with structural and institutional change, this preoccupation does not characterize evangelical executives today. Even those who share core religious convictions and overriding dispositions toward business express their convictions in diverse ways. But this diversity is not simply idiosyncratic. Rather, it is conditioned by executives’ professional histories and the norms and priorities that characterize their particular occupational contexts. There is, therefore, no one evangelical approach to faith and work.","PeriodicalId":239690,"journal":{"name":"Baptizing Business","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126249083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}