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The Business Ethics of Evangelicals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Shirley J. Roels
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Abstract:

Understanding the evangelical framework for business ethics is important, since business evangelicals are well positioned to exercise considerable future influence. This article develops the context for understanding evangelical business ethics by examining their history, theology and culture. It then relates the findings to evangelical foundations for business ethics. The thesis is that business ethics, as practiced by those in the evangelical community, has developed inductively from a base of applied experience. As a result, emphases on piety, witnessing, tithing, and neighborliness, important foundations in the evangelical model for business ethics, have resulted in a multitude of applied ethical strategies. This operative ethics model is then evaluated, particularly in regarding to its limited focus on the fundamental purposes and structures of business. The article concludes with several recommended sources which can enrich the evangelical tradition of business ethics, suggesting many resources from the Reformed Christian tradition as well as other ideas from contemporary Protestant and Catholic thinkers.

Type
Perspectives from Protestantism:
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , March 1997 , pp. 109 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1997

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References

Endnotes

1 Horan, Kevin. 1995. “The Christian Capitalists”, U.S. News and World Report, 13 March 1995, pp. 54 and following.

2 Marsden,George. 1991. Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Chapter 1.

3 Stackhouse, Max. 1987. Public Theology and Political Economy. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4 Marsden, Ibid, p. 5

5 Marsden. Ibid, p. 5.

6 Marsden, Ibid, p. 85.

7 Lorimer, Albert W. 1941. God Runs My Business, The Story of R.G. LeTourneau. New York, NY: Fleming H. Revell Co., p. 152.

8 DeVos, Richard, with Donn, Charles Paul. 1975. Believe. Old Tappan, NJ: F.H. Revell Co.

9 Thomas, Dave. October, 1993. From remarks presented in his speech to the Christian Business Faculty Association annual conference held at Regent’s University, Virginia Beach, VA.

10 Horan, Kevin. Ibid. p. 54.

11 Marsden. Ibid, Ch. 3.

12 Horan. Ibid, p. 56.

13 Sproul, R.C. 1980. Stronger than Steel: The Wayne Alderson Story. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.

14 Christian Business Men’s Committee, promotional literature. 1995.

15 Wall Street Journal. May 16–p. A–1, May 17–p. A–3, May 19–pp. A–3 and B–1, May 22–pp. A–3 and B–6, 1995.

16 Kuyper, Abraham. 1891. Christianity and the Class Struggle. Translated by Dirk Jellema. 1950. Grand Rapids, MI: Piet Hein Publishers.

17 Stackhouse, Max; McCann, Dennis P.; Roels, Shirley J., editors. 1995. On Moral Business, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co. Chapter 10 of this anthology provides key excerpts from the Lutheran, Catholic, Mainline and evangelical Protestant church statements on the economy.

18 Stackhouse, Max. 1987. Public Theology and Political Economy. Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans Publishing Co.; and 1995. On Moral Business. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co.

19 DePree, Max. 1989. Leadership is An Art. New York, NY: Doubleday and Co., Inc.; and 1992. Leadership Jazz. New York, NY: Dell Publishing.

20 Horan, Kevin. Ibid.

21 Wolterstorff, Nicholas. 1983. Until Justice and Peace Embrace. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co.

22 Fox–Genovese, Elizabeth. 1996. Feminism is Not the Story of My Life. New York, New York: Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., Chapters 7–9.

23 National Women’s Business Council. 1996. Report of the Interagency Committee on Women’s Business Enterprise. As reported in the Grand Rapids Press, January 29, 1996, p. A–3.

24 Lorimer, Albert W. 1941. Ibid. p. 116.

25 Van Leeuwen, Mary Stewart, editor. 1993. After Eden: Facing the Challenge of Gender Reconciliation. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co.

26 Pollard, C. William. The Soul of the Firm. 1996. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Corporation