8.10.2014 Evangelicals and Business Ethics: the Bible | Alistair Mackenzie - Academia.

edu

(http://www.academia.edu/)
Log In (http://www.academia.edu/login) Sign Up (http://www.academia.edu/signup)

Search...

Evangelicals and Business Ethics: the Bible more

by Alistair Mackenzie
783

Ali st ai r Mackenz ie considers

Evangelicals and business ethics:

the Bible
Wof Christians and are they any
hat shap es the bu siness ethics

different to the eth ics of other

business people?
In this, the first of two a rticles
exploring th ese issues, I describe
some d ifferent w ays the Bible is
being used to shap e Christian
business eth ics in evan gelical
Christian circles in Aotearoa at th e
moment.1 I am par ticularly
interested in ap proaches to business
ethics that are designed to be
popu lar rather than p rimarily
academ ic. My reason for using the
wor d eva ngelical is becau se this
pap er was originally prep ared for a
Colloquium add ressing topics
related to Evang elicals and Social
Ethics. How ever, I use this w ord
evan gelical in a fairly loose sense.
But on e thing th at evang elicals
usually have in comm on is their
desire to dem onstrate the biblical
found ations for w hatever they
prop ose. So this is where we start.
Because there hav e been a variety of
recent attempt s to produ ce biblical
persp ectives on bu siness ethics. The
second ar ticle will focus on the
shap ing influence of the chur ch
community.
There are a num ber of different
possible starting points w hen it
comes to using the Bible to prom ote
Christian bu siness ethics. I think

that th e variety
app roaches we of different
now go on to describe
illustr ates this.
1. A verse for every occasion
One w ay to use the Bible when you
are working on an issue is to try to
find every Bible verse that m ight hav e
something to say about that issue.
One book that seeks to do th is with
relationship to busin ess ethics is The
Businessmans Topical Bible2 (I
und erstand there is also a
companion version The
Businesswomans Topical Bible, but I
hav ent seen it). This book seeks to
add ress 100 common workp lace
issues and problems by listing
relevant Bible passages un der each
heading and using altogether 1550
Bible verses. The su bjects ran ge far
and w ide from what to do wh en a
customer is dissatisfied, to w hen you
lose a key emp loyee, wh en you feel
betrayed, when you feel temp ted to
cheat, when you r emp loyee needs
motivation . Some of the p assages
seem qu ite relevant although many
others seem only mor e remotely
relevant or even to involve a bit of
Scriptu re twisting if they are to prove
a point.
2. Looki ng for good busi ness
principles
This approach is illustrated by th e
wor k of the late Larry Burkett. His
Busin ess By The Book is subtitled The
Complete Guide of Biblical Principles for
Business Men and W omen .3 Bur kett is
best known for the development of
Christian Finan cial Concepts, an
enterp rise that specialises in

Stim ulus Vol 13 No 4 N ovember 2005

financial planning an d bu dget
ad vice w ith a special concern to
warn Christians against excessive
use of credit and to prom ote the need
for careful financial plannin g and
goal setting. This book ann oun ces
Six Basic Biblical Business
Minimum s includ ing:
Reflect Christ in your business
practices.
Be acco un ta ble.
P r ov id e a q u alit y p r od u c t a t a fa ir
price.
H o no ur y ou r cr ed it or s.
Treat your employees fairly.
M anagement by Proverbs6 a book built
aroun d 19 man agement principles
based on teachings derived from the
biblical book of Prover bs. Michael
Zigarelli develop s these und er five
main h eadings includ ing laying a
personal found ation for success,
building a comp etitive wor kforce,
cultivating a cultur e of commitm ent,
evaluating and rewarding
perform ance, and controlling
wor kplace conflict.
3. One cle ar command
As The Busin essmans Topical Bible
Maxwell ma intains, as the title of
his book suggests, that ther e is no
such thin g as business ethics. Only
ethics. There is just on e stand ard
across the board th at app lies to the
wh ole of life. In the mid st of a
complex world Maxw ell maintains
we n eed some simp le, practical and
app licable guidelines. And
fortunately w e can redu ce these to
one simple rule for making
decisions; The Gold en Rule (Mt
7:12). And ap plying this ru le just
means asking How wou ld I like to
be treated in this situation?

http://www.academia.edu/839118/Evangelicals_and_Business_Ethics_the_Bible 1/5
8.10.2014 Evangelicals and Business Ethics: the Bible | Alistair Mackenzie - Academia.edu
Treat your employees fairly.
Treat your customers fairly.
Burkett th en goes on to add ress a
host of different bu siness issues by
annou ncing principles d erived from
par ticular biblical passages that can
be app lied in a p ractical way. As
seems to be the w ay in most
Amer ican books, mu ch of this book
is made u p of illustrating these
principles with a variety of
sup por ting anecdot es. It still ma jors
on d eveloping Burketts financial
concepts, but a lot of other p ractical
issues are also add ressed in a way
that attem pts to be faithful to mostly
broad p rinciples drawn from
Scriptur e. Bur ketts wor k ha s been
carried on thr ough th e continuing
pu blication of his books and is also
associated in New Zealand w ith
Crow n Financial Ministries New
Zealand.4
Anoth er examp le of a similarly
principled app roach, but this time
from a mor e theological rather than
pr actical per spective, is Wayne
Grudems Busin ess for the Glory of
God.5 Grud em id entifies nine things
that business dep ends on includ ing
ownership, productivity,
employment, buying an d selling,
profit, mon ey, inequality of
possessions, comp etition, and
borrowing and lending. Grudem
then attemp ts to show h ow th e Bible
dem onstrates that each of these
elements is fund amen tally good
and p rovides many opp ortunities for
glorifying God , but also man y
temp tations to sin. In the light of
this Grudem is concerned to explore
how the Bible encour ages us to
realise the former w hile resisting the
latter.
Still another exam ple is
examining carefully to determ ine
what love requires there and then.
Other m oral rules are illuminators
indicating comm on wisdom about
wh at usually
loving results
consequen ces in
forthe
allm ost
involved
, What
but they have no u niversal
significance and no absolut e
bindin g pow er. Everyth ing else must
be set aside if love can be better
served . This appr oach therefore is
built around one command and for
the rest is concerned about
utilitarian consequ ences (the action
that w ill bring about th e greatest
good for all) wor ked ou t
contextu ally. Bu t Fletcher d oesnt
really clearly articulate what th at
good consists of and h ow it can be
determ ined. He is forced to devise a
nu mber of other p rinciples (four
presuppositions and
six pr opo sitions) to
define wh at the most
It is clearly not easy t o come up w it h a
loving th ing might be
and the relationship biblical approach t hat is at t he sam e t im e
between love and law,
love and justice, love
si mpl e, ad equat
and freedom, etc, so
that other p rinciples
also need considering.
By u sing som e exception al case
stud ies, Fletcher end s up calling
good some things that might
norm ally be thou ght evil, because
there seem to be some good loving
reasons for acting a certain w ay. For
example, for the sake of love one may
mu rder, lie, abort, commit ad ultery,
etc. Many other people wou ld rather
see that in a fallen w orld som etimes
we ar e faced w ith making choices
between tw o evils.
It does seem to m e that there are
some real similarities between the
app roaches of Maxwell and Fletcher,
although Maxwell wou ldnt
app reciate this comp arison, and
http://www.academia.edu/839118/Evangelicals_and_Business_Ethics_the_Bible
As The Busin essmans Topical Bible
dem onstrates, if we attempt to take
seriously all the comm and s in the
Bible it will take a lot of w ork to
learn them all. And a lot more work
to decide how to use them . Because
so many of the command s seem
rather irrelevant or hard to apply
now, is there a way of simplifying
our ap proach that still takes the
Bible seriously? One w ay is to
emp hasise the imp ortan ce of the Ten
Comm and ments of Moses (or some
version of these) wh ich has clearly
become a major battle in som e
Am erican contexts as evangelical
Christians p ush to have th e Ten
Comman dm ents displayed in
Schools and Courtrooms an d oth er
pu blic spaces. But so far this
particular approach wou ld not seem
to have gained m uch traction in
New Zealand. But th ere are signs
that other attemp ts to simplify this
command -based ap proach are being
made.
There is an u nd eniable attraction
in red ucing all the Bibles mor al
imp eratives to just one overarching
command . This is the app roach
taken in John Maxw ells book Theres
N o Su ch Thin g as Busin ess Ethics.7
Although John Maxwell is a N orth
Am erican pastor, his writings,
prim arily focussed on leadership
developm ent, have been widely
distributed in N ew Zealand. This
book on bu siness ethics is too recent
to have mad e a big imp act, but the
pop ularity of his other writings and
the straightforward app roach of this
book, combin ed w ith the fact that
there are New Zealand groups
ded icated to circulating h is
material,8 mean that this may w ell
prov e attractive to some.
St imu lus Vol 13 No 4 N ovember 2005
Sheldon w rote a book called In His
Steps which was about how the
behaviour of people changed wh en
they started asking What would
Jesus do?
What
w ould wou
Jesus ld Jesus
say? 9 think?
More recently another WWJD
movem ent has come into being,
inviting p eople to ask the same
qu estion. It has even become an
indu stry especially popu lar among
New Zealand Christian youn g
peop le, selling all sorts w rist band s
and necklaces and other trinkets
with th e WWJD logo on them. 10 It
asks a plain question and its
simp licity and focus on Jesus
probably helps to explain why it is
so attractive to you ng p eople in
par ticular. Wheth er just asking th is
question helps to adequately answer
e and comprehensiv e.
the question What d oes Jesus wan t
me to d o now ? is debatab le. It
wou ld seem to assum e that the mind
of Christ is easy to discern. And it
probably also assum es that we
un derstand a lot more about Jesus
than th is simple statement sup plies.
It may be a good qu estion to ask,
but not so easy to answer w ithout a
lot of other know ledge. However this
is not to suggest that it may n ot be
useful. A more systematic and
academic examp le of this appr oach
that return s to a moral vision of
Jesus for guidan ce is provid ed by
Kingdom Ethics: Followin g Jesus in
Contemporary Context .11 It is clearly
not easy to come up with a biblical
be treated in this situation?
In explaining w hy h e chooses
this particular app roach, Maxwell
offers four reasons saying :
1 Most people, cultures and
religions accept th e Golden Rule.
2 It is ea sy to u n d er st an d .
3 It is a win-win philosophy.
4 It is a co m p a ss w h en y o u n ee d
direction.
On th is basis Maxwell sug gests that
keeping this single prin ciple clearly
in focus is enough to m ake our
integrity gu ideline, although he
recognises that w e w ill probably
also need other p eople to hold u s
accoun table. He also spen ds tim e in
this book ident ifying those pressur es
that are most likely underm ine our
comm itment to act on this principle
and those things that we will need to
keep in p lace if we are to rem ain
faithful to this pr inciple. So he d oes
sugg est that it will not be easy.
Simp le, bu t not easy, is the way to
wh ich he points us, with a num ber
of other suggestions about w hat this
will require. These include th e
follow ing five elemen ts:
Treat people better than they treat
you.
Wa lk th e s eco n d m ile .
H e lp p e op l e w h o ca n t h elp y o u .
D o r ig h t w h e n it is na tu r a l t o d o
wrong.
Ke ep y o u r p ro m is es ev en w h e n it
hurts.
But d oesnt this sound remarkably
like Situ ation Ethics? In 1966 Josep h
Fletcher pu blished Situ ation Ethics:
The N ew M orality . It was an attempt
to find a m iddle way between
legalism and antinomianism (no
rules). He prop osed that the love
command is the only absolute moral
principle and each situation need s
links w ith the International
Fellow ship of Evang elical Stud ents.
Prior to his present app ointment,
Hill tau ght in t he School of Business
and EconomWhile
University. ics at there
Seattle
h ePacific
became
concerned by criticism th at
evangelical approaches to using the
Bible to develop b usiness ethics were
largely rule-bound and often lacked
relevance. For H ill the foun da tion
of Christian ethics in business is not
rules bu t the changeless character of
God. 12 We as hum ans have been
created to emu late God. Ethics (the
stud y of h um an character) logically
follows th eology (the stud y of Gods
character). Behaviou r consistent
w ith God s character is ethical that
w hich is not is uneth ical. Therefore a
bu siness act is eth ical if it r eflects
Gods char acter.
Download (.pdf)
And for Hill
Gods character is stim_13_4_macken
defined in short
63.5 KB
by God s concern
for holiness,
justice, an d lo ve .
Hill sees these as
the three primary
aspects of the char acter of God that
keep on recurring in biblical
descriptions of the way God acts. As
a result, Hill maintains that
Christian ethics requires that all
thr ee aspects be taken into accoun t
all the time. Overemp hasising the
importance of one at th e expense of
the others always leads to a
d istortion in ethical thinking. For
examp le, Hill suggests that an
overem ph asis on holiness can easily
lead to h yp ercritical legalism, wh ile
an overemp hasis on justice withou t
the other an chors can easily p rodu ce
harsh ou tcomes. And love orphaned
lacks an ad equate mor al comp ass.
Each, like a leg on a 3-legged stool,
2/5
8.10.2014
app reciate this comp arison, and
they ru n into similar problems. The
simplicity of elevating th e
significance of one p rinciple is
attractive, and is helpful in some
ways, but m ay also prove far too
simp listic and qu ite deceptive in
other w ays, because it still need s a
lot of qualifying definitions to
provid e clarity.
4. WWJD What wou ld Jesus do?
One hun dr ed years ago, Charles
Evangelicals and Business Ethics: the Bible | Alistair Mackenzie - Academia.edu
not easy to come up with a biblical
app roach that is at the same time
simple, adequ ate and
compr ehensive. But Alexand er Hill
thinks that he has come up with a
solution.
5. Hill s big three
Alexand er Hill is now the pr esident
of the InterVarsity movem ent in th e
USA and , as such, is influent ial in
shaping student thinking around
the wor ld throu gh InterVarsitys
Each, like a leg on a 3-legged stool,
balances the other tw o.
And so it is on this foundation
that H ill in his book Just Bu siness13
goes on to explore honesty and
deception, concealmen t and
disclosure, emp loyeremp loyee
relations, emp loyees rights,
discrimination and affirmative
action, the environm ent and
property.
This approach does take into
accoun t more dim ensions than those

Stim ulus Vol 13 No 4 N ovember 2005

that just focus on a single prin ciple
and so w ould seem to provide for a
better balance. At the sam e time, it
still retains some simp licity in
pr ovidin g just th ree lenses to look
through in ap proaching any
particular ethical dilemma. An d it is
relatively easily comp rehensible,
althou gh th e concepts of love, justice,
and holiness certainly need
significant explanation. H owev er,
any attempt to summ arise the
character of God w ith just three
word s should probably not be viewed
as absolute.
6. The 4-w ay test
The 4-Way Test w as conceived by
Her bert J. Taylor 14 and adopted by
Rotary International many years ago.
This test involves asking four shor t
questions:
1 Is it th e Tr u th ?
2 Is it Fair to all concerned?
3 Will it build Goodwill and Better
Friendships?
4 Will it be Beneficial to all
concerned?
Taylor says th at these w ere conceived
as a result of his career in busin ess
and his deep Christian faith, and it
was p articularly shaped by h is
mem orisation of Jesus Serm on on the
Mou nt (Mt 5-7). Taylor b elieved th at if
a companys leadership and its
emp loyees were encouraged to think
rightly they w ould act rightly too. But
this required some sort of ethical
yard stick they could easily mem orise
and apply to what they thought, said,
and did in relationships with others.
While not an explicitly Christian
organisation, Rotary has some strong
church links and m any evangelical
wh o are struggling to r elate their
personal faith and values to the way
business seemingly has to operate.
H is Called to Account is another
attemp t to bring together serious
Christian theology and business
practice.15
What H igginson ad vocates is a
credal approach to theology and
ethics. He maintains that the
Apostles Creed an d N icene Creed
provid e Christianity w ith its essential
structure of ideas and these describe
the ov erall shap e of the biblical story.
Higginson d evotes each chapter of
this book to exploring th e theological
and ethical imp lications of a por tion
of the Creed to the bu siness world.
Chap ters are devoted to The Trinity,
Creation, Managing Plan et Earth, The
Reality of Sin, The Law, The
Incarnation, The Cross, Resurrection,
The Spirit an d The End Time.16 A later
chapter look at The Und er-developed
Role of the Church in nour ishing th e
peop le of God.
If this looks mu ch mor e like
theology tha n ethics Higgin sons
overall orientation is practical, with
frequent r eference to case stud ies and
real-life m arketp lace eth ical
d ilemma s. This is help ed by th e fact
that an im portant p art of Higginsons
work is hosting r egular seminars for
business people built aroun d
particular ethical concerns.17
Part of the attraction of
Higginsons app roach is that it
develops the Bible story in a way that
mo st Christians are familiar with . It is
not bu ilt on an u nfamiliar structure,
nor d oes it assume a lot of previous
theological knowled ge. It also covers a
comp rehen sive span of biblical
reading the Bible to ad dr ess this
situation.
3 Identify the vital principles.
4 Evaluate an order of priorities.
5 Take the decision p rayerfully
before God.
8. A trini tarian approach
Higginson develops, in a m ore
pop ular and systematic way, the
work on Christian theology as a
resource for man agement p ioneered
by Christian Schu macher.19 This
earlier work w as not easy reading
and not exactly a popu lar
introdu ction to Schumacher s
thinking. How ever more recently
Schumacher has w ritten, in a more
autobiographical style, God in W ork20
wh ich h as circulated m ore widely in
New Zealand.
Schu ma cher seeks to investigate
wh at wh oleness in w ork looks
like in the light of the relationship s
between th e three Persons of the
Holy Trinity. He sees these
relationship s as the source of the
three dimensions of hum an
creativity: planning, d oing and
evaluat ing: Work is whole when
the action of the Father, the Son and
the H oly Spirit is fully man ifest in it,
and wh en [people] collaborate
within a structure and spirit which
reflects Chr ists m ystical bod y th e
Church.21 Schu ma cher goes on to
describe how and why work has
become deformed an d p roposes a
pr actical basis for restru cturin g in
the light of the prom ise of the
emergence of a New Ord er which we
work to anticipate and wh ich God
will bring to comp letion. Accord ing
to Schu macher, everyone shou ld

Christian participan ts. In trying to themes rather than building a whole have the opportun ity to apply
deliberately prom ote wider thinking theology on just one or two th emes. creative and critical though t to th e
about bu siness ethics a num ber of Thus it has th e ability to incorporate work in w hich they are involved. On
Rotary Clubs in New Zealand h ave the insights of other theologians and this basis, he ad vocates the
recently been prom oting The 4-Way can easily be expand ed or cond ensed. organisation of comp anies into
Test. At the same time it is not light reading small work-groups, so that all may
and is at the more academic end of the experience the satisfaction of w hole
7. A credal app roach popular spectrum. work. Schu macher s work can be
Dr Richard Higgin son is Lecturer in Higginson conclud es his book seen as an extension of the quest of
Christian Eth ics at Ridley H all, with a Meth od for Moral Decision- his father, Fritz Schu ma cher, to
Cambr idge, and Director of the Ridley Making.18 This is the simp le prom ote good work,22 but within a
Hall Found ation for the stud y of method ology he advocates: more explicit th eological fram ework
Faith and Work issu es. He is also 1 Consider the relevant facts. and with m ore direct connections
editor of the Faith in Business 2 Consult the important sources of with ind ustrial and commercial
jou rn al a nd has v isit ed N ew Ze ala nd . guid ance especially the Bible enterprises.
Higginson w rites for bu siness people with sensitivity to th e best way of The reason for includ ing

St imu lus Vol 13 No 4 N ovember 2005

reference to Schum acher in this stud y
is not only because his books are read
here, but also becau se the consu lting
enterprise that has grown ou t of his
work does work in New Zealand and
has attracted the involvement of
Christians from
evangelical
backgrounds.23
http://www.academia.edu/839118/Evangelicals_and_Business_Ethics_the_Bible
10. Bibli cal examples
Most leading figures in th e Bible
story wer e not professional religious
peop le. They were people God spoke
to and th rough in the midst of their
everyda y working lives. Hence, many
of the most useful sour ces
to highlight workp lace
ethical concerns an d
especially as rep resentatives of a
religious m inority. Isnt th is how
ma ny Chr istians feel today? Bringing
to life familiar biblical characters w ith
a new sense of how their faith an d
daily work w ere integrated offers us a
rich fun d of imp ortant resources to be
exploited mor e fully, and th e
possibility that they w ill become
3/5
8.10.2014 Evangelicals and Business Ethics: the Bible | Alistair Mackenzie - Academia.edu
backgrounds.23
9. Christian
virtues
A lot has been
written recently
about
rediscovering th e
value of virtue
ethics. Much o f
this has been
pretty academic
and associated with the nam es of
peop le like Alasdair MacIntyre 24 an d
Stanley Hauerw as 25 and oth ers. What
these appr oaches suggest is that good
peop le are more likely to m ake good
choices and so we shou ld concentrate
on grow ing people of good Christian
character rather than just people wh o
know the ru les. A helpfu l biblical
introdu ction to this app roach is
provid ed by Benjamin Farley.26 Farley
prov ides a systematic survey of
virtues in ts
Testamen the Old
and and New
explores their
relevance for Christian living tod ay.
Anoth er interesting example of this
app roach app lied d irectly to business
ethics is supp lied by p hilosopher
Tom M orris in h is fascinating book If
A ristotle ran General M otors.27
Although Morris is primarily starting
from Aristotles emp hasis on the
significance of trut h, beau ty,
goodness, and u nity and this shapes
the stru cture of his book, he is a
Christian and makes frequent
references to Christian p erspectives
along the w ay. Mark Strom , the new
pr incipal of the Bible College of N ew
Zealand, utilises a similar approach
in his writing on leadership an d
character developmen t.28 There
would seem to be room for more w ork
to be done in this regard. It could be
very useful to help u s discern th ose
aspects of Christian character that w e
should be m ost concerned to see grow
in the light of the sorts of challenges
Christians can exp ect to face in the
marketplace today an d tomorrow.
Stim ulus
way:
a Command: this approach asks
Is this action right or w rong in
itself?
b Consequences: this approach
asks Will this action p rod uce
mainly good or bad results?
c Contextual app roaches to ethics
ask What is the m ost fitting
respo nse in this context or
culture?
d The Character app roach asks Is
the actor a good p erson with good
motives?
Some of th e examp les described
above em ph asise the significance of
one of these classical appr oaches at
the expense of the others, while
others suggest that some
combination of these app roaches is
most useful.
Taken togeth er they sug gest that
to determ ine the true m orality of an
action w e need to consider:
1 The morality of the action itself.
2 The consequences of the action.
3 The meaning of this act in this
context.
4 The motives and character of the
actor.
Plainly ther e is no one b iblical
app roach for d eveloping a Chr istian
bu siness ethic. Instead the Bible
provid es us with a num ber of lenses
through wh ich w e are invited to look
to examine and critique the m orality
of the marketp lace and our actions in
it.
It is also plain that a nu mber of
evangelicals have been q uite
enterp rising in exploring d ifferent
http://www.academia.edu/839118/Evangelicals_and_Business_Ethics_the_Bible
ethical concerns an d
dilemmas are to be found
in the narrative por tions of
Scriptur e. The stories of
Joseph, Daniel, Nehem iah,
and Esther are some
obvious examp les. But to
explore these stories from a
work place persp ective may
involve bringing to them
new qu estions and
und erstanding them in
new w ays, because the survey w ork
that h as been d one clearly
dem onstrates that this is seldom th e
persp ective from wh ich they are
norm ally explored in ou r teaching
and p reaching.29 For examp le, I
remem ber hearing a cry of
exasperation from a law professor in
Australia who had just been
involved in some deman ding
international peace negotiations an d
at the same time had sat through a
serieschur
local of sermons on NehemThere
ch congregation. iah inwas
his
mu ch mad e of Nehemiahs examp le
of prayerfulness and leadership and
integrity, but w ithout any m ention of
his roles as a local body politician,
build ing contractor, or internation al
negotiator:
There was so mu ch there that I and
others could have related to, if only
the man had been brought down t o
earth. Bu t in stead it was all
spiritu alised and we were left wit hout
really exploring in any specific ways
how this man remained faithfu l in
spite of the mult itu de of competin g
tim e demands and expectations he
operated un der. S urely N ehemiah
provides a wonderfully relevant
example for people un der pressure in
our modern w orld. But inst ead it w as
an opportunity lost!
The w orkp laces of Joseph , Daniel,
and Esther were all environments
where foreign gods w ere worshipped
and they foun d them selves in some
very d ifficult positions when it came
to ma king ethical decisions,
Vol 13 No 4 N ovember 2005
Christian community in New Zealand.
2. Mike Murdock, The Businessmans Topical
Bible (Tulsa: Honor Books, 1992).
3. Larry Burkett, Busin ess By The Book
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1990).
4. See details from their website at
w w w . cr o w n . o rg / c s/ h o m e . as p ?s id = 9
[Accessed 3 August 2005].
5. Wayne Grud em, Busin ess for the Glory of
God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003).
6. Michael Zigarelli, M anagement by Proverbs
(Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1999).
7. John C. Maxwell, Theres No Such Thing
as Business Ethics (USA: Warner Books
2003).
8. E.g. Max Palmers International
Resource Network in Christchurch. See
h t t p :/ / w w w . ir n . or g .n z / i n d e x. h tm
[Accessed 3 August, 2005].
9. You can find th e text of this book at
h t t p :/ / h o m e ch u r c h .o r g / s p i ri tu a l it y /
sheldon / [Accessed 3 August, 2005].
10. Se e h t t p :/ / w h a t w o u l d je s u sd o . co m
[Accessed 3 August 2005].
11. Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee,
Kingdom Ethics (Downers Grove: IVP,
2003), especially 409-426 on Economics.
12. Alexander Hill, Just Business: Christian
Ethics for t he M arketplace (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP, 1997), 13.
13. Ibid.
14. See www.4waytest.org [Accessed 3
August, 2005].
15. Richard Higginson, Called to Account
(Guildford: Eagle, 1993).
16. An abbreviated version of Higginsons
theology of business appears in David
Atkinson, Pastoral Ethics (Oxford: Lynx,
1994), 153-164.
17. The results of some of these
consultations are su mm arised in Richard
possibility that they w ill become
mu ch more pow erful mod els of faith
at work for ordinary Christian p eople
wh o can identify with th eir struggles.
Parrott and Parrott 30 describe a ten
week course designed to h elp
participants solve vocational
dilemmas th rough gaining familiarity
with the stories of Abraham , Jacob,
Joseph , and Moses. Each Old
Testamen t narra tive is examined in
dep th w ith some key questions in
mind that are d esigned to extract
some end uring vocational lessons,
and then par ticipants are invited to
app ly these lessons to their ow n
career jour neys.
American Os Hillman wh ose daily
dev otional emails 31 are widely used
adop ts a similar app roach. Another
example is the work of New
Zealander Beulah Wood w ho has
prod uced a book of 12 stud ies about
W omen at W ork in t he Bible32 that was
originally
Ind designed
ian au dien p rimarily
ce. Biblical for an
character
stud ies is also the focus for a m ajor
research assignm ent for the Ethics for
the Mar ketp lace B cour se offered
throu gh the Ch ristchu rch Regional
Learn ing Cen tre of the Bible College of
New Z ealand as stud ents are asked to
do an in-depth stud y of a biblical
character faced w ith an ethical
dilemma that p arallels the sort of
challenge that p eople are still likely to
experience toda y. The Word in Life
Stu dy Bible33 was also prod uced to
help p eople read th e Bible from this
perspective w ith m any helpful articles
and indexes. John Pu rdy even uses a
selection of the wor k-related pa rables
of Jesus to explore a variety of mo ral
concerns.34
Conclusions
In sum mary, wh en it comes to u sing
the Bible to add ress questions of
Business Ethics, it is plain that all of
the classical app roaches to doing
Ethics are utilised. We can sum ma rise
these app roaches in the following
1975 and Vision and Virtue (Notre Dame:
Fides/ Claretian, 1974).
26. Benjamin W. Farley, In Praise of V irtu e:
A n Exploration of Biblical Virt ues in a
Christian Context (Grand Rapids, IL:
Eerdmans, 1995).
27. Tom Morris, If A ristotle Ran General
M otors (New York, N Y: Hen ry H olt, 1997).
28. Character, Wisdom and being a Leader:
older insights for modern leaders, edited
transcript of an address to the Foundation
for Young Australians conference,
Australian Maritime College, Launceston,
Tasmania, 13 July, 2001. Also Dr Mark
Strom with Tony Weir, The Arts of the Wise
Leader, unpublished book manuscript, and
Humility: the tale of a virtue from The
Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership , Carolyn
Baker (ed.) (Syd ney: McGraw -Hill/ AIM,
2003).
29. See Alistair Mackenzie, Faith at Work:
The Journey and the Issues a t h t tp :/ /
w w w . se ed b e d . in f o / e n g li sh / p a p e r s / 6 .d o c
[Accessed 3 August, 2005]. also Mark
Greene, Thank God Its M onday (England:
Scripture Union, 1997), 19.
30. Leslie L. and Les Parrott, The Career
Counsellor (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing,
1995), 70-86.
31. See http:/ / ww w.todaygodisfirst.com/
[Accessed 3 August, 2005].
32. Beulah Wood, Women at Work in the
Bible (Bangalore, India: SAIACS
Publications, 1998).
33. Word In Life Study Bible (Nashville, TN:
Thom as Nelson 1993,1996,1998).
34 John C. Purdy, Parables At Work
(Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press,
1985).
Al ist ai r Ma ckenz ie is a lecturer at t he
4/5
8.10.2014
wa ys of using the Bible to pr omote
Christian ethical thinking in the
mar ketplace and several of these are
having some impact on shaping the
thinking (and hopefully also the
behaviou r) of Christians in Aotearoa.
The article above is part on e of an
extended consideration of ethics in
the m arketp lace by Alistair
Mackenzie. It is intend ed th at
Stimulus will pu blish part two in
the next issue.
Endnotes
1. This does not mean that the approach
needs to have originated in New Zealand
but there do need to be real signs that it has
impacted on some part of the evangelical
Job Board About Press
http://www.academia.edu/839118/Evangelicals_and_Business_Ethics_the_Bible
Evangelicals and Business Ethics: the Bible | Alistair Mackenzie - Academia.edu
Higginson, Questions of Business Life (UK:
Spring Harvest, 2002).
18. Higginson, 224-240.
19. Christian Schumacher, To Live and To
Work: A Theological Interpretation (Bromley,
Kent: MARC Europe, 1987).
20. Christian Schumacher, God in Work
(Oxford: Lion Publishing, 1998).
21. Schumacher, To Live and To W ork, 93.
22. Fritz E. Schumacher, Good Work (New
York, NY: Harper & Row, 1980).
23. See ww w.work-structuring.com
[Accessed 3 August, 2005].
24. Alasdair MacIntyre, A fter Virt ue: A
Study in Moral Theology (Notre Dame, NY:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1984).
25. Stanley Hauerwas, Character and the
Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics
(San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press,
St imu lus Vol 13 No 4 N ovember 2005
Blog Stories We're hiring engineers!
Academia 2014
Bible College of N ew Zealand in
Christ church. H e pioneered the Faith
at W ork Project, a research and
trainin g programm e that explores the
conn ections betw een faith and w ork and
seeks to see Christians bett er supported
for minist ry in daily life
(www.faithatwork.org.nz). A listair is
also part of the pastoral team of Ilam
Baptist Church in Christchurch.
Previously he served as Cant erbury staff
worker for TSCF and as N ew Z ealand
Co-Ordinator for S ervant s t o Asias
Urban Poor. He is one of the authors of
Wheres God on Mon day? (2002) and
SoulPu rp ose: ma king a d ifference in
life and work (2004) A listair is also a
foundation member of the Bob Dy lan
A ppreciation Society.
Help Terms Privacy Copyright Send us Feedback
5/5