HIGHER EDUCATION CR 3 Conference 2014 Missional Business

HIGHER EDUCATION CR 3+ Conference 2014 Missional Business: More Than CSR Rod St Hill Academic Director and Dean, School of Business Education & Humanities Social Sciences Ministries www. chc. edu. au

Structure • • • 2 Definition of CSR The church’s low opinion of business Emerging theologies of work and business The Business As Mission movement Missional business www. chc. edu. au

Definition of CSR • Balancing the interests of people (society), the planet (environment) and profit (owners) (Elkington (1998) • ‘(W)orking with businesses, within the existing political and economic landscape, to make companies adopt ethical guidelines, incorporate stakeholder concerns, and more efficiently internalize the costs externalized onto the environment and society’ (Gill, 2008) 3 www. chc. edu. au

Before the Reformation Sacred – secular divide • ‘Catholic distortion’ 4 – 3 rd & 4 th Centuries • Jerome: ‘A merchant can seldom if ever please God’ • Augustine: ‘Business is in itself evil’ • Eusebius: perfect vs permitted Christian life – 13 th Century • Aquinas: vita contemplavia > vita activa • But praised the work of merchants, farmers and craftsmen (cf Augustine, Aristotle) www. chc. edu. au

The Reformation • Luther – ‘(T)he works of monks and priests. . . differ no whit in the sight of God from the rustic toiling in the field’ • Calvin – ‘(I)n following your proper calling, no work will be so mean and sordid as not to have splendour and value in the eye of God’ Sacred = secular, but now sphere sovereignty ‘…unlawful to overleap the prescribed bounds’ 5 www. chc. edu. au

The Puritans and Quakers ‘God intends for business and the Church to be separate…’ (Quatro) • ‘Protestant distortion’ 6 – Puritans and Quakers furthered reformed thinking on vocation • Kuyper (1837 -1920) – more spheres, incl business • Quakers – Barclays Bank, Bethlehem Steel, Cadbury, Clarks, Huntley & Palmers, Rowntree • Puritans merged spiritual and material calling. – Profit and piety no longer incompatible – Work is (sacred) duty rather than calling www. chc. edu. au

The Problem • Sayers (1947) – In nothing has the church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends… • Carr (1968) • Friedman (1970) 7 www. chc. edu. au

Theologies of Work and Business • Beginning in the 1980 s and growing in the 1990 s and 2000 s, both Catholics and Protestants developed theologies of work and business that dealt with both distortions – Paul Stevens (2006), Doing God’s Business – Tim Keller (2012), Every Good Endeavour – Jeff Van Duzer (2010), Why Business Matters to God – Kenman Wong & Scott Rae (2011), Business for the Common Good 8 www. chc. edu. au

Cutting a Long Story Short Business and church are both called to ministry • When we work – We fulfill the creation mandate → stewardship and development – We cooperate with God and partner with nature to redeem all of creation • When Adam (Heb adam) fell spiritually he took with him that to which he was joined, the earth (Heb adama) • Business (and markets) are powers – Bring order where there would otherwise be chaos 9 www. chc. edu. au

Business As Mission (BAM) BAM is: • Profitable and sustainable • Intentional about Kingdom of God purpose and impact on people and nations • Focused on holistic transformation and the multiple bottom lines of economic, social, environmental and spiritual outcomes • Concerned with the world’s poorest and least evangelised peoples 10 www. chc. edu. au

Missional Business 11 www. chc. edu. au

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