Faith and Work

Christian Perspectives, Research,
and Insights Into the Movement

Edited by

Timothy Ewest
Houston Baptist University and
Visiting Research Collaborator
Princeton University

Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Charlotte, North Carolina

www.infoagepub.com

Advances in Workplace Spirituality: Theory, Research, and Application

Louis W. (Jody) Fry, Series Editor

Indigenous Spiritualities at Work Transforming the Spirit of Enterprise (2015)

Edited by Chellie Spiller and Rachel Wolfgramm

Spiritual Leadership in Action: The CEL Story Achieving Extraordinary Results Through Ordinary People (2013)

By Louis W. Fry and Yochana Altman

Inner Peace—Global Impact: Tibetan Buddhism, Leadership, and Work (2012)

Edited by Kathryn Goldman Schuyler

Psychology of Religion and Workplace Spirituality (2012)

Edited by Peter C. Hill and Bryan J. Dik

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP data for this book can be found on the Library of Congress website:
http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Paperback: 978-1-64113-063-9

Hardcover: 978-1-64113-064-6

E-Book: 978-1-64113-065-3

Copyright © 2018 IAP–Information Age Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or by photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

CONTENTS

Book Series Introduction

Louis W. (Jody) Fry

Foreword

David Miller

1.     The Reason of Faith: Macro-, Mezzo-, and Microemergences of Faith in the Workplace

Timothy Ewest

PART I:      INDIVIDUAL

2.     Ancient Spirituality at Work

Elden Wiebe and Cathy Driscoll

3.     The Impact of College Type and Occupational Category on Faith Integration in the College Workplace

Sharlene Buszka and Timothy Ewest

4.     Work as Worship: Bringing Meaning to Work Through an Integrated Faith

Simone Meskelis and J. Lee Whittington

5.     Priests of Creation, Mediators of Order: Taking God to Work

Peter McGhee and Myk Habets

6.     “As the Birds to Flying, So Is Man Born Unto Work”: Martin Luther’s Notion of Work as an Individual Source for Meaning

Lucas Zapf and Peter Seele

PART II:      ORGANIZATION

7.     Decent Work, Meaningful Work, and Developmental Work: Three Key Ethical Concepts From Catholic Social Teaching

Domènec Melé

8.     Caring for Employees: Corporate Chaplains as a Model of Faith at Work

David W. Miller, Faith Ngunjiri, and Dennis LoRusso

9.     Faith, Family, and Work: A Christian Perspective on Family Businesses

Allan Discua Cruz

10.  Innovative Work and Worship Contexts and Their Associations With Regulatory Focus Mindsets and Nascent Hybrid Entrepreneurship

Mitchell J. Neubert and Kevin D. Dougherty

PART III:      SOCIETY

11.  Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity: Exploratory Implications for the Diaspora in the United States

Tamrat Gashaw and Timothy Ewest

12.  The Holistic Motivation of Social Entrepreneurs

Julia R. Marra and Kent W. Seibert

13.  Heading for the Multifaith Workplace

Stuart Allen and Peter Williams

PART IV:      CONCLUSION

14.  Secular and the Sacred: Tracing Their Dimensionality and Tension

Timothy Ewest

About the Contributors

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Christians who rise each day to join with the rest of humanity in the common rhythm of work. These individuals engage in work because it enables them to express and form their Christian identity, and thus work provides them a deep meaning and purpose for their lives. The action of these Christians is an uncontestable fact which is often overlooked by researchers, governments, and communities, but is predicated within these chapters.

Book Series Introduction

Louis W. (Jody) Fry

Series Editor

A major change is taking place in the personal and professional lives of many organizational leaders and their employees as they aspire to integrate their spirituality and religion with their work. Many argue that the reason behind this change is that society is seeking spiritual solutions to better respond to tumultuous social, business, geopolitical changes. The result has been a remarkable explosion of scholarship that provides the opportunity for more specialized interest areas, including the role of spirituality and religion in shaping organizations: structures, decision making, management style, mission and strategy, organizational culture, human resource management, finance and accounting, marketing and sales—in short—all aspects of leading, managing, and organizing resources and people. As evidenced by the growing influence of the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion and the success of the Management, Spirituality, and Religion Interest Group of the Academy of Management, a field with a broad focus on workplace spirituality is gathering momentum.

This book series, Advances in Workplace Spirituality: Theory, Research, and Application, focuses on the study of the relationship and relevance of spirituality and/or religion to organizational life. Its vision is to draw from a diverse range of scholarly areas to become a pivotal source for integrative theory, research, and application on workplace spirituality. The purpose of the series is to (1) provide scholars with a meaningful collection of books in key areas and create a forum for the field, (2) support a growing trend toward paradigm integration and assimilation through the interdisciplinary nature of this series, and (3) draw from a wide variety of disciplines for integrative thinking on workplace spirituality with the broad goal of adding to the value of workplace spirituality theory, research, and its application. The series aims to serve as a meeting forum and help cross-fertilization in these communities. Our sole criterion is academic rigor and scientific merit.

The latest edited book of this series, Faith and Work: Christian Perspectives, Research, and Insights Into the Movement, is truly groundbreaking. Spirituality-based models have dominated management, spirituality, and religion theory, research, and practice. However, today there is an emerging consensus that new religion-based theories and models are needed, not only for organizations that employ workers from different spiritual and religious traditions, but also for public and private organizations whose cultures and employees embrace diverse religious beliefs and practices as central to their work. This is especially true for the Christian tradition since Christianity in all its forms and manifestations comprise almost a third of the world’s population.

This book helps fill this need by providing a language and framework for practitioners and scholars alike to think about ways that Christian thought might shape and inform organizational life. In doing so, Volume Editor Timothy Ewest draws on a talented and diverse group of interdisciplinary and international scholars to contribute fresh thinking about Christian perspectives, practices, and insights into the faith at work movement at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. Whether you are a believer or not, a Christian or not, or simply interested in big ideas, I trust you will find this book informative, thought provoking and, for some, a call to action.

Foreword

David W. Miller

Director, Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative, President, the Avodah Institute

New York City is seldom the first city that comes to mind when writing about the Buckle of the Bible belt. Cities like Nashville or Abilene usually vie for that bragging right. Yet there I was, on Wall Street attending a secular corporate leadership event for senior executives in the financial services sector, talking about God.

Over cocktails, one executive squinted at my name tag which read, “David W. Miller, PhD, Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative.” Eschewing any attempt at courtesy, he asked me, “what on earth is a ‘Faith & Work Initiative’ and why are you attending this event?” I responded, “I’m in the God business.” I waited to see whether he would make a quick excuse about needing to refresh his drink and run in the opposite direction, or whether he might pause and say something like, “I waited to see whether he would make a quick excuse about needing to refresh his drink and run in the opposite direction, or whether he might pause and say something like, ‘tell me more.’ ” Whenever I am feeling mischievous and do this at corporate events, I never cease to be amazed that four out of five people are curious and want to know more.

The growing body of evidence and scholarly literature from a variety of disciplines seems to validate this vignette. People of all faith traditions and backgrounds, including atheists and agnostics, are increasingly curious about the phenomena of “integrating faith and work.” Somewhat ironically, even those active in a worship community express disappointment at how little guidance or encouragement they get from their clergy person during the Sabbath sermon.

Professor Timothy Ewest, my friend, colleague, frequent collaborator, and editor of this timely and important book has organized this text along three different but related planes. As I observed in my 2007 book, God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement (Oxford University Press), people and organizations involved in the movement tend operate on three levels. Many focus on the micro or individual level, trying to draw on and integrate their faith teachings as part of their personal understanding of their day-to-day work activities and conduct. Others focus on the mezzo or organizational level, focusing on how their faith tradition and teachings might impact companywide decisions, products, and services. And yet others focus on the macro or wider stakeholder impact of their work on society. And of course, many seek to understand how their faith should function on all three levels.

Ewest has drawn on a talented and diverse group of interdisciplinary and international scholars to contribute fresh thinking about Christian perspectives, research, and insights into the faith at work movement. The book is structured to lead the reader through the individual, organizational, and societal aspects of faith at work. The contributing scholars raise important content questions, including: finding meaning and purpose in one’s work; caring for creation; embracing diversity while sustaining Christian values; responding to those who feel their faith is marginalized by society; and identifying the constructive role that Christian faith might play in shaping and informing ideas and actions amidst these contemporary questions.

As the title of this book declares, it is written out of a distinctly Christian worldview. And yet, there is no such thing as a single “Christian worldview,” just as there is no such thing as a single Jewish or Muslim worldview. Yet Ewest has gathered scholars from various Christian traditions, geographies, and accents. My personal hope is that this book might be a template to prompt edited volumes from other religious traditions, following suit with similar self-reflections and perspectives on faith and work at the personal, organizational, and societal levels. I suspect we will undoubtedly notice different accents within and between the traditions, even as we will find a vast amount of resonances and shared teachings.

As for Christianity and its three major branches (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant), each have varying theological accents, doctrinal foci, and practical teachings, even as they are all united under foundational beliefs about Jesus Christ as the risen Messiah. Christianity as a whole is very interested in what it means to be a human being, created an image of God, and what it means for humanity to cultivate and tend the garden, that is, to work. This book helps us explore these profoundly important questions.

In recent decades, the church and the theological Academy have largely ignored these two questions. Despite some notable exceptions over the past few years, most seminaries have abdicated constructive engagement with or equipping of laity involved in the workplace and the wider economic sphere. This book helps bridge that gap by providing a language and framework for practitioners and scholars alike to think afresh about ways that Christian thought might shape and inform their individual, organizational, and social engagement in the marketplace.

Whether you are in the God business or not, a Christian or not, or simply interested in big ideas, I trust you will find this book of existential and practical value.