Kenman L. Wong and Scott B. Rae, Business for the Common Good: A Christian Vision for the Marketplace (Christian Worldview Integration). IVP Academic, 2011.
Related volume: Scott Rae and Austin Hill, The Virtues of Capitalism
- Missional Spirituality of Work
- Social Ministry, Christian Perspectives on Economics and Public Policy
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Wong is a business ethicist and Rae is a biblical ethicist. They team here to offer a perspective on how the Christian story shapes business. The chapters:
- Your Work Is an Altar
- The Shape of a Calling to Business
- Business and Spiritual Formation
- Wealth, Success and Ambition
- The Calling of Business in the Global Economy
- Ethics in the Workplace
- Leadership and Management: Serving Employees
- Marketing: Serving Customers
- Stewardship and Sustainability: Serving The Garden and Our Neighbors
- Emerging Directions in Business
Its inclusion in LifeandLeadership.com stems from the emphasis on the economics of the common good and social justice. The chapters on “Wealth, Success, and Ambition,” and “Stewardship and Sustainability” are especially helpful.
From the Publisher
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 Authors
Kenman L. Wong (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is professor of business ethics at Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Medicine and the Marketplace: The Moral Dimensions of Managed Care.
Scott B. Rae (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is professor of biblical studies and Christian ethics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in La Mirada, California. He is also the author of Embryo Research and Experimentation (Crossroads) and Brave New Families: Biblical Ethics and Reproductive Technologies (Baker).