Business for the Glory of God: The Bible's Teaching on ... (ISBN 1581345178)

thought provoking:
I have never really thought deeply on why I do business and what mindset I should have. Prior to this book, I just did and now I guess I try to look inside a bit more. I recommend it for Christians and non-Christians.

Great Read!:
I found this book to be one of the best regarding the "why" behind Christian principles at work. It very clearly provides an understanding as to how God uses businesses to minister to others in the marketplace. If anyone has negative connatations when it comes to business and profit, this book will clarify the topics once and for all!

Glorify God in pursuit of a calling to business.:
Wayne Grudem is Research Professor of Bible and Theology at Phoenix Seminary. In addition to his work at Phoenix Seminary, Dr. Grudem also taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for 20 years. He has served as the president for both the council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and the Evangelical Theological Society (1999). He has written numerous articles and books. Two of his more recent works are The First Epistle of Peter: An Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007) and Countering the Claims of Evangelical Feminism: Biblical Responses to the Key Questions (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2006). Business for the Glory of God has a lot to offer for a book that has a total of 96 pages including the notes and indexes. In this work, Dr. Grudem unpacks what the Bible teaches concerning the moral goodness of business. The idea of moral goodness in business sounds like an oxymoron in light of the scandal-laden business world we see around us today. Dr. Grudem does a great job of illustrating how the various aspects of business, when exercised in a Godly manner, allow us to reflect certain characteristics of God. The aspects of business covered in this book are as follows: Ownership Money Productivity Inequality of Possessions Employment Competition Commercial Transaction Borrowing and Lending Profit Attitudes of the Heart In each chapter, the particular aspect of business at hand is contrasted as being fundamentally good, providing both opportunities to glorify God as well as many opportunities to sin. The prevailing negative attitude in our culture towards business today may be largely in part to the numerous examples of business professionals succumbing to those temptations to sin rather than pursuing each aspect of their business to the glory of God. The book closes with an argument for the ability of "business rightly pursued" to make a dent in the problem of world poverty. The long-term solution Grudem proposes involves starting and maintaining productive and profitable businesses in developing countries. As these businesses are pursued to the glory of God, the positive effect of creating jobs and commerce should have a ripple effect where the economic status and ability of the people should continue to improve in ever-widening circles. I would highly recommend this book to any Christian who is working in the business world. A prevailing message in Christian circles today is that the highest calling we could have is to serve God as a pastor or missionary. I feel this book shows how Christians can have a calling to business and in the midst of pursuing it; they can glorify God, reflect His attributes, and bless others.

Disappointing:
I apologize the hyperbole, but this has to be the most painful text I've ever read in my academic career. I was hoping for some a well-reasoned description of how business can glorify God or how certain codes of ethics help business glorify God, but I was disappointed. Grudem's arguments, while mostly for things most Americans would agree upon, are poorly supported with a few random Bible verses and almost no logic whatsoever; for example, he states that since Jesus gave laws on how employers should treat their employees, God, therefore, approves of employing people, and being an employer is good. He does not mention that the Bible states that slaves should be allowed to rest on the Sabbath, so, perhaps, God also approves of slavery. I believe giving someone gainful employment is a good deed, but that argument, and almost all the other arguments in the book, were pretty flimsy. Grudem takes the idea of human's responsibility for the earth and makes in into total dominion, with no references to environmental stewardship. I'm not sure that a company making thousands of shirts is really making the earth that much richer. Some people need shirts, but there is such a thing as using too many resources. Grudem's arguments tend to be culturally chauvinistic; he argues that any society without a system of ownership is evil. This was intended as a knock against communism, which certainly has had its share of "evil" leaders and laws, but it does not take other societies without as system of ownership, such as many American Indian tribes, into consideration. They do not strike me as particularly evil. The book was also repetitive, redundant, and I read the same things over and over again. He says he is writing a book on business ethics. If the argumentation is better, I would be interested in seeing what he has to say.

Brief outline of biblical teaching on business:
This was a very insight full book on the inheriant goodness of business. He attacked several misconceptions I had about business. Feeling guilty for earning a profit or being well off. What matters is how you obtain your money and what you do with it afterward. If you obtain your money through hard work and fairness in business dealings you deserve what you have. And the best way to help someone in need is through give them the power to earn their own profit. Don't expect a lot of interesting or amusing stories this is bare bones biblical explanation.