The Business, Faith and Common Good Seminar Class was started in 2015 to provide a class to help students learn more about how business, faith, and the common good are interrelated. MBA and undergrad students (in liberal arts as well as business) may take the class. We look at a variety of traditions and perspectives. Unique to this class is the fact that we bring in faculty from across the country to speak to interact with our seminar. See the 2016 speakers here, and the 2017 speakers here, 2019 Speakers here, 2021 speakers here.
Most semesters we have guest expert faculty, experienced business professionals speak to our seminar group in person coming from various schools around the country and other departments from Creighton. When we have guest speakers, other students and faculty are welcome to join our seminar group as guests. Our tentative list of speakers this year will be:
The speaker series is connected to the course when offered, and the speakers are very interesting, covering topics of financial advising and the common good, Catholic economics, Entrepreneurship and faith, how to navigate one’s calling, the effects of investors on the single family housing market, and finally a symposium with keynote speaker Richard T. DeGeorge, reknown business ethicist.
All talks are open to the public. All are in the Harper Center on Creighton’s Campus.
Here is the schedule:
September 15th Financial Advising and the Common Good (Panel) (6-7pm Harper 4068/69)
Katie Bruno, Jeffery Hitt, and Morgan Meyers will share a panel in which we will discuss financial advising and the common good.
9/20 Tony Annett “Cathonomics” 7-9 Harper 2045/2046 [Markoe-DePorres Annual Lecture]
Tony Annett (Fordham U) worked for the International Monetary Fund for 14 years, and is the author of “Cathonomics” which puts forward a view of how Catholic Thinking should impact our economic thought. (co-sponsored with the Peace and Justice Studies Program)
9/22 Ross Emmet (ASU) “Entrepreneurship: A Faith Perspective” (6-7pm, UP Room)
Emmet is Director of the ASU Center for the Study of Economic Liberty, and widely published expert economist (Co-Sponsored with Creighton’s Institute for Economic Inquiry)
9/29 Luke Bobo & Paige Wiley “Worked Up: Navigating Calling after College” 6-7pm (3047)
Bobo and Wiley will help students consider how to navigatepost-college decisions. They came last year and were great.
10/6 The Effects of Investors buying Into SFH Market (6-7pm in 3047)
This will be a panel of local real estate and housing specialists discussing the current Single-Family Housing Market
10/20 Carson Young “Good Business, Profit, and Ethics” (6-7pm UP Room/2060)
Young is an up and coming Business Ethicist from Suny-Binghamton (Co-Sponsored with Creighton’s Institute for Economic Inquiry)
10/27 Symposium UP room: Richard T. DeGeorge “What is the Common Good?” Reception to follow.
DeGeorge is a world famous business ethicist, and the author of 20 books and over 220 articles mostly on business ethics. He comes to us from the University of Kansas.\
All talks are open to the public. All are in the Harper Center on Creighton’s Campus. Most are 6-7 pm. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact Andy Gustafson at andrewgustafson@creighton.edu
Each week there will be online discussion assignments, as well as some readings related to class and the guest speakers. In addition to weekly assignments, there are no tests or quizzes, but a book review, a final paper and final presentation project which you will present on the last day of class when we meet at Johnny’s Steakhouse for our last class (Gustafson’s treat!)
Many readings will be online, but assigned books from which we will read include: “Resisting Thowaway Culture”, Business for the Common Good (Rae & Wong), Respect In Action: Applying Subsidiarity in Business (Naughton et al); Worked Up: Navigating Calling after College, and Vocation of the Business Leader
If you have any questions, please contact Andy Gustafson (andrewgustafson@creighton.edu)
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Tentative Schedule: 11 classes (Thursday pm 6-8:45)
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Week 1 (8/19) Business and the Common Good, Business and Faith, and Faith and the Common Good This is our “Intro Night”– I will try to introduce you to some of the themes of the class, and help you understand the logic and flow of what we will be doing. Please try to check out the readings before you come. Overview:1. Introduction; 2. Various conceptions of business (Stockholder, Stakeholder, etc); 3. Business and the Common Good; 4. Business and Faith Skim: Business, the Economy, and the Poor (Links to an external site.) (Gustafson) Familiarize yourself with this list (and description) of major Catholic Social Thought Documents (Links to an external site.) A list of CST Principles (Links to an external site.) Discussion Post: Read: What ever Happened to the Common Good? (Links to an external site.) (Time) Do you think most people think about the Common Good? Do you? Why do or don’t people consider it, in your opinion? We will look at these in class: Common Good PPT — My Properties PPT Download My Properties PPT |
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Week 3 (9/2) Subsidiarity and Economy of Communion This week we will discuss Subsidiarity, and also discuss the Economy of Communion Movement, which Celeste (my wife) and I are a part of. Read: EOC and other paths to social benefit Read: Pope Francis Talk to the EOC (Links to an external site.) Respect In Action: Applying Subsidiarity to Business (Links to an external site.)(Just the intro, ch1 & ch2 (pg1-30)) Answer this weeks questions and be prepared to give your answers in class. |
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Week 4 (9/9) Vocation of the Business Leader Readings: Read: (all of) Vocation of the Business Leader (Links to an external site.) Read: Read only what you need to to answer questions from Centesimus Annus (1991) Answer this weeks questions and be prepared to give your answers in class. Discussion Post: From what you have read so far, how would you respond to someone who said that Catholic Social Teaching is anti-capitalist and pro-socialist? In class we will look at some of these: Work as Vocation and the Un-Divided Life (PPT) |
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Week 5 (9/15) Financial Advising and the Common Good Panel Katie Bruno (Morey & Quinn), Jeffery Hitt (Edward Jones) & Morgan Meyers (NBC Trust) Read Richard Baxter’s “Directions for the government of the body (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)” from his Christian Ethics
Discussion Post: Read “The Use of Money (Links to an external site.)” John Wesley Wesley puts limits on “Gaining all you can”– what do you think of those limits? Are they reasonable? Should we limit what we acquire? Why or why not? |
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Week 6 DOUBLE-HEADER!! This week we will have two guests speakers. (9/20) Tony Annett (Fordham U.) Author of Cathonomics (Links to an external site.) On Tuesday we will meet with Tony Annett on Tuesday late afternoon, then go hear his talk 7-9pm. Professor Annett worked for the IMF as a senior economist and speechwriter for nearly 15 years before starting his academic career first at Columbi and now at Fordham University where he is a Gabelli Fellow at the Gabelli School of Business. His recent book: Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a more Just Economy has been called “essential reading for all Catholics” by some. (9/22) Ross Emmett (ASU) Entrepreneurship and Faith Read: The Entrepreneur (by Ross Emmett) Read: Knightian Entrepreneurship and Catholic Social Teaching
Read: Frank Knight’s Critique of Business, and the EOC (Gustafson) |
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Week 7 (9/29) Navigating Calling After College (Luke Bobo and Paige Whitney) Luke and Paige will present to us 6-7 on finding your calling after college. Tonight’s reading is simply the book they co-wrote, which is a workbook to help you think through your calling. The book is Worked Up: Navigating Calling after College (Links to an external site.) We will talk with Luke and Page during our seminar about the book and your responses to it. Reading: This weeks reading is very hands-on, in that it requires you to respond as you read through it. I know that this workbook is very ‘Christian’, for lack of a better word, but I would like you to go through pages 5-43 (there are quite a few blank pages for notes) and go through the exercises they suggest. Our time with Luke and Paige will primarily be talking about the things from the workbook, and how to try to discern what to do with one’s life after school. Discussion Post: Read Gleaning”– a New Movement in Christian Business (Links to an external site.) What are a couple of ways you can think of which would be practical or interesting ways to practice ‘gleaning’? Do you think its a ‘doable’ business practice? |
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Week 8 (10/7) |
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10/14 FALL BREAK! |
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Week 9 (10/20) Carson Young (UNY Binghamton, NY): Business and the Common Good
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Week 10 (10/27) The Effects of Investors in the Single Family Housing Market xtra: Contemporary Protestant Thought on Economic Life Discussion: This week I’d like each of you to post 2 paragraphs about the book you reviewed. Spend the first part describing what the book was about, and the second part giving your response (this is not supposed to be your entire book review, just a brief summation of it) Then respond to at least 2 other people’s posts. Week 11 (11/7) Business, Faith and the Common Good (Presentations of Projects to be held at Johnny’s Cafe and Steakhouse (Links to an external site.) in South Omaha) Examples of 2015 presentations: Advertising for the Common Good Moostache Joe’s Tours G UP Interviews Is there a Solution to Global Poverty? Download Is there a Solution to Global Poverty? |
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Business, Faith, and the Common Good Institute 