The Business, Faith and Common Good Institute is excited about the opportunity to make the presentations from the 2018 Fall Symposium available to scholars and students through a special volume in the open access Journal of Religion and Society Fall of 2019.  The 2018 Symposium featured a number of well known figures in the field of faith and business who spoke specifically to the relationship between Catholic Social Thought and the Economy of Communion business movement.  Andy Gustafson, director and lead associate of the Institute commented, “We are so very happy for this opportunity to make these high level articles by leading scholars available for students and faculty worldwide through the publication of this special issue of the Journal of Religion and Society.”  Gustafson and Celeste Harvey (College of St. Mary) will be the guest editors of this special issue of the journal, by gracious invitation of the editor of the journal, Ron Simkins, director of Creighton’s Kripke Center.   The participants in last year’s symposium are submitting their papers for journal-publish review format, which will then be reviewed and authors will be provided opportunity to revise them according to editorial review before publication this fall.
  Celeste Harvey and Gustafson

Here are the details on the upcoming journal volume:

Business, Faith, and the Economy of Communion

A Special Volume in The Journal of Religion and Society

This is a series of essays written by scholars engaging with the Economy of Communion movement, many of which were presented at Creighton University in the fall of 2018 at the Business, Faith and Common Good annual symposium.  These scholars have previously written on topics related to business, faith and the common good, but here they bring their own expertise and interests to bear on how those topics relate to the economy of communion.  The economy of communion has always been an entrepreneur-driven group with a very practical vision and purpose. But insofar as it is rooted in a deep spirituality, and informed by Catholic thought, there are many different aspects to consider from a more academic perspective.  As one of the entrepreneurs said at the symposium which prompted this book: “Listening to these thinkers explain the Economy of Communion has really helped me realize why I practice business the way I do.  It has enriched my vision for my business”  Our hope is that this collection of essays will enhance the richness of the EOC movement and inspire other academics to investigate the Economy of Communion’s principles and business practices. We hope also to be able to include the address from Pope Francis to the EOC in 2017 at the Vatican.

We think publishing a series of essays rooted in the group of presentations we had here for the symposium is an exciting idea.  Here are some reasons:

1. We think it will help people associated with EOC (entrepreneurs) as well as like-minded entrepreneurs outside EOC to think about some CST issues which are central to uniting faith and business.
2. We believe it would be helpful to establish EOC as a movement intellectually by having people outside of EOC writing on its concepts and values. This gives it some legitimacy in the greater arena of ideas.
3. Since this is an open-access online journal, these essays will help spread the EOC way of thinking about business in general to scholars and students.
4. We believe these articles are of value to people who are thinking about issues of business and faith more generally (e.g., Beabout’s article on ownership; this is a very important point that Christian business owners really must take seriously).

Table of Contents

• “Introduction” Andy Gustafson and Celeste Harvey
• “For An Economy Based On Communion”Chiara Lubich
• Pope Francis “Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to Participants in the Meeting ‘Economy of Communion’, Sponsored by the Focolare Movement” (Paul VI Audience Hall, Saturday February 4, 2017)
• “What is the EOC?” John Gallagher (Maryville)
• “Pope Francis on The Economy of Communion” Amy Uelmen (Georgetown)
• “The Economy of Communion and Ownership” Greg Beabout (St. Louis U)
• “Practicing the Economy of Communion in a Consumer Society” David Cloutier (Catholic U)
• “Why Too Much Competition is Bad for Humanity, and the Need for Humanizing the Economy”Angus Sibley (Paris)
• “EOC and the Essentially Personal Nature of the Economy” John McNerney (Ireland (currently fellow at CUA))
• “How Economy of Communion Exemplifies Subsidiarity” J Buckeye (U St. Thomas)
• “The Economy of Communion: Catholic Social Thought Put to Work” Andy Gustafson (Creighton)
• “Putting Economy of Communion in Context: Commonalities and Differences With Other Social Entrepreneurship Movements” Celeste Harvey (College of St. Mary)
• “A Bibliography of Resources on the Economy of Communion” Celeste Harvey and Andy Gustafson

John Gallagher (Maryville)  “What is the EOC?” John is Professor of Management at Maryville College in Maryville, TN.  He is the co-author of various articles on EOC and business as well as Structures of Grace: The Business Practices of the Economy of Communion (2013).

Amy Uelmen   Uelman was the founding director of Fordham University’s Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work from 2001 to 2011 and is currently at Georgetown Law School.  Amy’s essay highlights the apparent ‘opposites’ of economy and faith– on how that the writings of Pope Francis can help us to think about these apparent opposites in unity without compromise.  This is at the heart of the Economy of Communion– whose name contains this apparent contradiction– the economy, which is typically considered competitive and cutthroat, and communion, which indicates unity and peace.  Rather than an economy of having, the EOC advocates and economy of giving– turning the focus of business around.  The vision of EOC members is to make profit without compromising concern for human beings– in fact, the focus is to help human beings through business, and keeping that project afloat via profit.  Business is seen as a spiritual practice which helps us to become who we are meant to be by helping others fulfill their purpose through meaningful work as well.

Greg Beabout is professor of philosophy at St. Louis University and has a thorough knowledge of Catholic Social Thought.  His books include Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management; The Character of the Manager: From Office Executive to Wise Steward;  Freedom and Its Misuses: Kierkegaard on Anxiety and Despair; Beyond Self Interest: A Personalist Approach to Human Action;  A Celebration of the Thought of Pope John Paul II: On the Occasion of the Papal Visit to St. Louis; Applied Professional Ethics.    His essay is on the ethics of ownership– namely, what possible obligations one might have as an owner, as well as the importance of planning so that companies such as EOC companies can continue with their mission after the founder retires or sells.  Starting with a Christian perspective that all things are God’s to begin with, he drew from the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and other church writings to explain the traditional Christian view that private property is essential for human flourishing, but that a corollary view alongside that view is that if one has enough and anther is in need, you should share.  Rerum Novarum, the 1891 encyclical, literally meant “new things” and was dealing with relatively new ‘laissez faire’ economics and the competing ‘socialism’.  The pope sought an alternative to both– a humane economy which respects private property as it respects the dignity of humans and concern for the poor.  Beabout connects this to the EOC focus on sharing– a concept which was dear to the EOC long before the sharing economy based companies of Uber or AirBnB.

David Cloutier teaches moral theology at Catholic University, and is author of the award-winning The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age, and Walking God’s Earth: The Environment and Catholic Faith, as well as Reading, Praying, Living Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’.  His essay is a powerful argument for living our lives with concern for our consumer effects on the common good, and others.  He argued that the economy of communion doesn’t accept the typical separation of private and public lives– that I may do whatever I want privately, so long as it doesn’t directly violate others’ freedom.  On this pessimistic view of human nature, any desire satisfaction is fine so long as it isn’t illegal and we can pay for it.  Cloutier argued that such a view doesn’t take into account the common good.  Finally, he argued that EOC businesses should not market futile goods, goods which promise happiness in themselves, or the upscale lifestyle indicative of contemporary consumer culture.

Angus Sibley: Angus Sibley is a retired actuary and former member of the London Stock Exchange. He has written extensively on finance, economics, Catholic theology, and other topics. In 2015 he published  Catholic Economics: Alternatives to the Jungle in 2015, and in 2011, The Poisoned Spring of Economic Libertarianism.  Angus runs Equilibrium Economicum, a site dedicated to  the view that “sound economic policymeans finding and preserving acceptable equilibrium between opposing principles. Between the need for competition and the damage caused by its excesses. Between the need for freedom of enterprise and the abuses of the deregulated jungle.” Mr. Sibley’s essay is a powerful argument for the need for some regulations and ‘brakes’ to help keep the market, itself an inanimate result of human activities, in check– to tame it.  The market itself knows economic demand, but not human needs; it knows costs of production, but not human costs.  He additionally criticized the tendency towards constant change and innovation in the name of progress, arguing that much of this constant change has diminishing returns.  He explores the ways in which EOC does this at the entrepreneurial level.

John McNerney is Currently a visiting scholar at Catholic University of America, and a researcher and lecturer in business ethics and philosophy. He has been Head Chaplain/Student Adviser at University College in Dublin, Ireland.  He recently published a book, Wealth of Persons: Economics with a Human Face.  His essay focuses on the centrality of persons in business activity, and the importance of love which is at the root of the vision of business, even drawing on Milton Friedman and Schumpeter for inspiration, along with Zumagni and Chiara Lubich and various encyclicals. Entrepreneurship is personal, creating a space for the human person to creatively contribute, and EOC business should consider the other as me, in a personalistic framework.

Jean Buckeye is  associate professor of ethics and business law at University of St Thomas and is a co-author of the book Structures of Grace, about EOC companies.  She is also co-author of Respect in Action: Applying Subsidiarity in Business.  Jean’s essay explains the central importance of the Catholic Social Thought concept of subsidiarity for the Economy of Communion practices.  Subsidiarity, which essentially encourages that people be empowered to make and speak into decisions which locally affect themselves (rather than decisions being made from a central authority giving little autonomy, power or dignity to those impacted) mirrors the EOC central concern for workers dignity and the human centered focus of business practice.

Andy Gustafson is Professor of Business Ethics and Society at the Heider College of Business at Creighton University, as well as the head of the Business, Faith, and Common Good Institute at Creighton.  He has published articles in a variety of business ethics journals, textbooks and handbooks, as well as other ethics and philosophy journals.  He also is an EOC entrepreneur, and does real estate investment, reahab, and rental in Omaha.  In his essay he discusses the ways in which Catholic social teaching principles of human dignity, community and the common good, solidarity, option for the poor and vulnerable, participation and subsidiarity, dignity of work, stewardship of creation and solidarity inform his vision of business practice as an EOC entrepreneur, and how they work in tandem with the EOC principles of creating an economy of giving in gratuity and reciprocity.

Celeste Harvey is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the College of St. Mary and director of their ethics program.  She has published in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminism and The Review of Politics. In her essay she discusses the EOC model of business practice and how its values compare and contrast with other approaches to business management, including other social entrepreneurship models.

The 2018 BFCGI Symposium was done in tandem with the 2018 annual meeting of the Economy of Communion North America organization, a group of businesspeople, students, faculty and laypeople who pursue a vision of practicing business with a goal of helping human beings and the common good.  The symposium brought experts on the topic of business and faith from Paris, Ireland, Washington DC, New York, St Louis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and other parts of the country to Creighton University to help our students and community reflect on how business and faith can and should go together.  Events started Friday morning at 9 and lasted until Saturday evening.

Nick Sanna, COO of RiskLens, serial entrepreneur and longtime member of the Economy of Communion was our first speaker.  He gave a brief introduction to EOC, and shared some of his personal experiences of making business decisions with people taking precedence over profit.  One of those powerful stories was a time when a recent hire was not working out as a marketing director for his company and Nick told the board he was going to have to let her go.  He made an appointment to meet with her, and at the meeting she let him know she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Knowing that if he fired her she would be without insurance, he did not bring the matter up and went back to the board and told them he was not going to fire her until she got through her treatment.  They did not second guess his decision, and a few months later she was cured of cancer and moved on.  In another situation, he had to let some colleagues go during the recession, but felt he should give them double severance pay, since the market was not good for getting anther job.  Again, he brought this decision to the board, and he was told “you’d better know what you are doing, or there are going to be more changes” (his job!).  When the economic recovery happened, and Nick’s company hired again, some of the interviewees told Nick that through social media they had contacted former employees who had been fired, and those people had such glowing things to say about Nick and his management that the interviewees very much wanted to work at his company.   EOC is what helps Nick to ‘stay sane’ and keep focused on what is truly important in work.

Amy Uelmen   Uelman was the founding director of Fordham University’s Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work from 2001 to 2011 and  is currently at Georgetown Law School.  Amy spoke about the apparent ‘opposites’ of economy and faith– one how that the writings of Pope Francis can help us to think about these apparent opposites in unity without compromise.  This is at the heart of the Economy of Communion– whose name contains this apparent contradiction– the economy, which is typically considered competitive and cutthroat, and communion, which indicates unity and peace.  Rather than an economy of having, the EOC advocates and economy of giving– turning the focus of business around.   The vision of EOC members is to make profit without compromising concern for human beings– in fact, the focus is to help human beings through business, and keeping that project afloat via profit.  Business is seen as a spiritual practice which helps us to become who we are meant to be by helping others fulfill their purpose through meaningful work as well.

Greg Beabout is professor of philosophy at St. Louis University and has a thorough knowledge of Catholic Social Thought.  His books include The Character of the Manager: From Office Executive to Wise Steward.   His talk focused on the ethics of ownership– namely, what possible obligations one might have as an owner.  Starting with a Christian perspective that all things are God’s to begin with, he drew from the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and other church writings to explain the traditional Christian view that private property is essential for human flourishing, but that a corollary view alongside that view is that if one has enough and anther is in need, you should share.  Rerum Novarum, the 1891 encyclical, literally meant “new things” and was dealing with relatively new ‘laissez faire’ economics and the competing ‘socialism’.  The pope sought an alternative to both– a humane economy which respects private property as it respects the dignity of humans and concern for the poor.  Beabout connected this to the EOC focus on sharing– a concept which was dear to the EOC long before the sharing economy based companies of Uber or AirBnB.  

Angus Sibley: Angus Sibley is a retired actuary and former member of the London Stock Exchange. He has written extensively on finance, economics, Catholic theology, and other topics. In 2015 he published  Catholic Economics: Alternatives to the Jungle in 2015. and in 2011, The Poisoned Spring of Economic Libertarianism.  Angus runs Equilibrium Economicum, a site dedicated to  the view that “sound economic policy
means finding and preserving acceptable equilibrium between opposing principles. Between the need for competition and the damage caused by its excesses. Between the need for freedom of enterprise and the abuses of the deregulated jungle.” Mr. Sibley’s talk was a powerful argument for the need for some regulations and ‘brakes’ to help keep the market, itself an inanimate result of human activities, in check– to tame it.  The market itself knows economic demand, but not human needs; it knows costs of production, but not human costs.  He additionally criticized the tendency towards constant change and innovation in the name of progress, arguing that much of this constant change has diminishing returns.

Scott Henson International Director, TEAM.  Scott holds a Ph.D. in international relations and law from Vanderbilt University.  HE was joined by TEAM’s legal counsel, Nick Morgan of Idaho.  They presented an overview of evangelical approaches to using business for purposes of faith.  Previously, frequently in evangelical missions the purpose of business has generally been used to win souls to Christ or to get entry into countries where missionaries would otherwise have been denied entry, and some people remain in employment they otherwise do not enjoy simply because they have an opportunity to bring Christ to others– such as a biblestudy they run, etc.  But there have been some significant shifts in evangelical thinking, modeling a more wholistic approach which sees the gospel to be not only about winning souls for Christ, but to be serving the needs of the needy, as Christ did, because we should give our lives in service to others as Christ who loved the poor, needy, and hungry.

David Cloutier teaches moral theology at Catholic University, and is author of the award-winning The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age, and Walking God’s Earth: The Environment and Catholic Faith, as well as Reading, Praying, Living Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’.  His talk was a powerful argument for living our lives with concern for our consumer effects on the common good, and others.  He argued that the economy of communion doesn’t accept the typical separation of private and public lives– that I may do whatever I want privately, so long as it doesn’t directly violate others’ freedom.  On this pessimistic view of human nature, any desire satisfaction is fine so long as it isn’t illegal and we can pay for it.  Cloutier argued that such a view doesn’t take into account the common good.  Finally, he argued that EOC businesses should not market futile goods, goods which promise happiness in themselves, or the upscale lifestyle indicative of contemporary consumer culture.

  John McNerney is a researcher in and lecturer in business ethics and philosophy.He has been Head Chaplain/Student Adviser at University College in Dublin, Ireland.He recently published a book, Wealth of Persons: Economics with a Human Face.  His talk brought up the centrality of persons in business activity, and the importance of love which is at the root of the vision of business, even drawing on Milton Friedman and Schumpeter for inspiration, along with Zumagni and Chiara Lubich and various encyclicals. Entrepreneurship is personal, creating a space for the human person to creatively contribute, and EOC business should consider the other as me, in a personalistic framework.

Jean Buckeye is  associate professor of ethics and business law are co-authors of the book Structures of Grace, about EOC companies.  She is also co-author of Respect in Action: Applying Subsidiarity in Business and she gave a talk explaining the central importance of the Catholic Social Thought concept of subsidiarity for the Economy of Communion practices.  Subsidiarity, which essentially encourages that people are empowered to make and speak into decisions which locally affect themselves (rather than decisions being made from a central authority giving little autonomy, power or dignity to those impacted) mirrors the EOC central concern for workers dignity and the human centered focus of business practice.

Friday night we had a reception at the Press Club.  It was a wonderful evening of discussion and sharing, making new friends and reconnecting with old friends.

Saturday morning we continued at the Heider College of Business with some EOC workshops and presentations.

 Paul Catipon, president and CTO of NetPro Communications (and EOC company) in New York City shared stories of his worker-focused management practices.  He has frequently encouraged clients to hire some of his best employees, because he knows it will be a good career move for his employees.  What he didn’t realize is that it means his clients trust him a great deal, and he has previous employees who feel great loyalty to him working for many of his clients, which helps him attract business.  He also discussed the importance of being friends with your competition, and how that he will send his competition jobs he cannot do.  In one case when he called a competitor to offer them one such opportunity they asked, “what is your cut?” but Paul didn’t want a cut, he just knew his competitor would be able to help his client, so in his mind it was already a win-win.  His company has expanded a great deal as he has practiced business in this way.

 John Mundell is President and Senior Environmental Consultant at Mundell & Associates in Indianapolis, and EOC company.  John spoke of our entrepreneurial witness.  He has been a tireless leader in the EOC movement for decades, and he shared some of the key elements of the EOC movement in a video, also explaining how they practice it at Mundell and Associates.  He also shared about their ongoing internship program, bringing young people to learn about EOC entrepreneurial values for months or a year at a time.   Finally, he also shared a video of one of the new exciting projects of EOC, project LIA

 Jim Funk is Global Head of Leadership Transformation at Consulus, Country Director for Consulus USA, and also President, J L Funk & Associates, an EOC company.  He shared some of the key management principles involved in aligning your company with your values, both individually and in terms of company policy.  He had participants reflect in groups on how EOC principles might make a difference in how businesses are run.  It was a productive exercise for all.

Nick Sanna led a hackathon exercise, bringing out some of the most significant challenges and ways to overcome those challenges for the EOC movement in North America.  Some of the takeaways were that it was agreed having a designated staff person rather than volunteer labor to run the organization would likely help propel things forward, that use of social media was essential, and that some more academic development of curriculum and essays for student use would be very useful.

Saturday evening was concluded with a feast at “The Vic”– Andy and Celeste Gustafson’s gathering place near campus.  It was a festive and enjoyable night of communion together.

2018 Business Faith and Common Good Symposium

“An Economy of Communion”

Friday, October 5, 2018, Skutt Student Center Room 105

The 2018 Business Faith and Common Good Symposium brings a lineup of outstanding speakers who will provide short talks on various topics oriented around “An Economy of Communion”.  This year we will be hosting the Economy of Communion-NA annual meeting, and entrepreneurs from across the country will be here for the event. We hope students and faculty will be in attendance as well! All are welcome.  Attendance is free. Please direct any questions to Andy Gustafson (andrewgustafson@creighton.edu)

Schedule

8-845 Coffee/Pastries Networking

8:45 Nick Sanna, COO Risklens, Board Member EOC.  “Welcome”

930 Amy Uelmen (Georgetown) “Pope Francis on The Economy of Communion”

1030 Greg Beabout (St. Louis U) “The Economy of Communion and Catholic Social Teaching”

1130 Angus Sibley (London) “Why Too Much Competition is Bad for Humanity”

1230  Scott Henson,  CEO of TEAM and Nick Morgan, Chief Legal Counsel, TEAM

130 David Cloutier (Catholic U) “Practicing the Economy of Communion in a Consumer Society: Challenges and Opportunities.”

230   John McNerney (Ireland) “How Business Does and Sometimes Does Not Make us More Human”

330 John Gallagher (Maryville) and Jean Buckeye (U St. Thomas) “Why Economy of Communion Exemplifies Subsidiarity”

530 Reception at the Omaha Press Club

We are very excited about this year’s lineup of speakers.  Each talk will last about 30 minutes, with 15 minutes of Q&A.  We expect interesting and spirited discussions about the ways business can be integrated with faith, and visa versa.

The Symposium is generously sponsored in part by Dundee Bank and Anderson Convenience  Market

On the Presenters:

Nick Sanna Nick is the COO of RiskLens and is responsible for the definition and the execution of the company strategic positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategies. A serial entrepreneur, Nick’s passion is to help the industry close the gap that separates IT from the business. Prior to RiskLens, Nick contributed to closing that gap as CEO of Netuitive, a leading IT Operations Analytics (ITOA) software company and as CEO of e-Security, the pioneering Security Information and Event Monitoring (SIEM) company that was ultimately sold to Novell.

Amy Uelmen   Uelman was the founding director of Fordham University’s Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work from 2001 to 2011 and  is a visiting lecturer at Georgetown Law and a research fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center. Her scholarship focuses on how Catholic social thought might shed light on tort law, legal ethics and legal education, and how principles of dialogue might inform debates about religion in the public square. Books authored include: Education’s Highest Aim: Teaching and Learning through a Spirituality of Communion (2010) and Focolare: Living a Spirituality of Unity in the United States (2011),

Greg Beabout is professor of philosophy at St. Louis University and has a thorough knowledge of Catholic Social Thought.  His books include The Character of the Manager: From Office Executive to Wise Steward. (2013), Celebration of the Thought of Pope John Paul II: On the Occasion of the Papal Visit to St. Louis. (1998), and  Applied Professional Ethics (1994)

Angus Sibley: Angus Sibley is a retired actuary and former member of the London Stock Exchange. He has written extensively on finance, economics, Catholic theology, and other topics. In 2015 he published  Catholic Economics: Alternatives to the Jungle in 2015. and in 2011, The Poisoned Spring of Economic Libertarianism.  Angus runs Equilibrium Economicum

Scott Henson International Director, TEAM.  Scott holds a Ph.D. in international relations and law from Vanderbilt University, an MBA from Duke University, an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, and a bachelor’s in religious and Biblical studies from Gardner-Webb University. He serves on the faculty at Maryville College, where he teaches political science and international studies and is passionate about mentoring young global leaders.

David Cloutier teaches moral theology at Catholic University, and is author of the award-winning The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age, and Walking God’s Earth: The Environment and Catholic Faith, as well as Reading, Praying, Living Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’

John McNerney is a researcher in and lecturer in business ethics and philosophy.He has been Head Chaplain/Student Adviser at University College in Dublin, Ireland.He recently published a book, Wealth of Persons: Economics with a Human Face

John Gallagher, professor of management at Maryville College and and Jean Buckeye associate professor of ethics and business law are co-authors of the book Structures of Grace, about EOC companies in the U.S.

Heider College of Business welcomed Lloyd Sandelands, Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan on Thursday night at the Harper Center.  His talk was “The Inhumanity of Profit Seeking” and his thesis was that when business focuses on profit instead of human flourishing, it loses track of its real purpose, and fails to fulfill its purpose, both morally and economically.   Work is for humanity, not the other way around, but we often seek our meaning in our work or in our wealth from our work, which, according to Sandeland, is the wrong place to get our sense of being.  Our true being comes only from God, and in right relationship to God we find the balance which sees work for what it is– a means of bringing about human flourishing.

After graduating from Northwestern, Sandeland taught at Columbia University College of Business in the 1980s, and moved to the University of Michigan in 1981, where he has taught for over 35 years.  Earlier in his career he was not religious, but he had reconversion experience back to his Catholic faith later in his career, and has written extensively on the central importance of God for a right conceptual understanding of business and its purpose.  His books include God and Mammon, and also Being at Work among others.  His central theme is that the business of business must be oriented towards the human and flourishing, and that will happen only when the purpose of our work is to glorify God.

The talk was very well attended, and there were many interesting questions afterwards.  The seminar class to follow was a solid hour and a half of questions from students about Dr. Sandelands thoughts on business.  All in all it was a very successful conclusion to this year’s Business, Faith, and Common Good Speaker Series!

Andy Gustafson

Richard Nielsen came to us from Boston College Thursday evening to help us understand the history of Quaker values, businesses and education, and to make comparisons between the Quakers and Ignatian values.

Some famous Quaker businesses are: Price Waterhouse Coopers, Lloyds, Barclays, Sandy Spring Bank, Chocolate, Cadbury, Fry, Rowntree, Terry, Sony, Lever Brothers (Unilever),  Horniman’s Tea, and Wharton of Bethlehem Steel.

Most of these are no longer owned by Quakers.   Some distinctive innovations of Quaker Businesses were,  Cooperative employee relations, participative decision making, consensus decision making, profit and productivity sharing, continuing innovation with employees, job security with life-time employment with occasional layoffs, eight hour instead of twelve hour shifts, forty hour work weeks, men and women managers promoted from entry level positions, adult education, health care for employees, Home mortgage financing,  paid vacations, paid sick days and longer term leaves, subsidized nutritious meals for employees, pensions for employees, unions recognized and supported, and the concept of Servant leadership, created by Quaker Greenleaf.

The Quaker influence was substantial.   Nielsen said that this win-win social contract that began with many of the large Quaker family owned/controlled businesses later became the foundation for the 1946-1980 political-economic form often referred to as “managerial capitalism.” Nielsen pointed out that beginning around 1980, managerial capitalism was in large part replaced by the current “finance capitalism” in the U.S. and the U.K. that emphasizes maximization of shareholder wealth rather than a win-win social contract.  Many of these influences from the Quakers have been lost in the push for cost savings.

Many Quaker schools are famous: Bryn Mawr College, Cornell University, George Fox University, Haverford College, Johns Hopkins University, Swarthmore College, Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, and Whittier College.  The Quaker distinctives have faded over time for most of these schools.  Although the Quaker history is there, but its practical affects and influence is muted in most cases.  Few Quakers teach at these institutions, and there is little distinctive Quaker influence.

Dr. Nielsen drew a number of comparisons between Quaker and Jesuit values, but he raised a more disturbing concern– are Jesuit schools perhaps losing their identity gradually much like the Quaker schools did?

The history of Quakers, comparison to Jesuits, and possible parallels to decline of the distinctive values were thought provoking and very interesting for the 50+ people who attended (including some local Quakers from the Omaha community).

This year’s Business, Faith and Common Good Symposium was oriented around three related concepts: Good Goods, Good Work, and Good Wealth.  We had two panels of local business people talk about Good Goods, and then Good Work. Our Keynote speaker this year was Charles Clark from St. John’s University in New York.

In The Vocation of a Business Leader (2011) the concepts of “Good Goods”  “Good Work” and “Good Wealth” are highlighted, which respect human dignity and serve the common good, and look at business as a community of persons.

Good Goods: produce goods and services that meet genuine human needs and serve the common good, while taking responsibility for the social and environmental costs of production and the supply chain and distribution and watching for opportunities to serve the poor;

Our good goods panel was made up of Tom Deall, owner of the Bellevue Chick-fil-A, Tyler Mainquist, a financial adviser well versed in Socially Responsible Investing, and Daniel Lawse, an environmental consultant.

Good Work: organise productive and meaningful work by recognising the dignity of employees and their right and duty to flourish in their work (work is for the person rather than the other way around), and by structuring workplaces with subsidiarity that designs, equips and trusts employees to do their best work.

Our good work panel was made up of Kari Yost, HR Director for Thrasher, Dusty Davidson, founder of Flywheel and local entrepreneur, and Mark Ruch, of Object Partners.

Good Wealth:  use resources wisely in order to create both profit and well-being, to produce sustainable wealth and to distribute it justly (a just wage for employees, just prices for customers and suppliers, just taxes for the community, and just returns for owners).”

Dr. Clark discussed the ways in which a Christian anthropology (view of what it is to be human) significantly differed from the neoclassical view.  He provided a variety of views of wealth, arguing that a view of wealth which is concerned with the improved well being of society sees wealth in terms of abundance, as opposed to a scarcity view of wealth which sees wealth as possible only when you have more than others do.

Again this year’s symposium provided a great opportunity for faculty and students to engage with local business people and a renown Catholic economist.  New friendships were made, and a lot of good discussions took place.

The Business, Faith and Common Good Institute could not put on the symposium or the speaker seried without the generous support of the Creighton University office of Mission and Ministry, Heider College of Business, Anderson Convenience Markets, F&M Bank, and Dundee Bank.

This year’s panelists and speaker:

Tyler Mainquist, Financial Advisor at Central Financial Services

Tyler Mainquist is a Financial Planner (CFP®, CAP®, CLTC) with a specialty in Sustainable, Responsible and Impacting (SRI) investing.  He is a registered representative (RR) and investment advisory representative (IAR) with Ameritas Investment Corp. (AIC). He is a lifelong Nebraskan, and a graduate of UNL and the American College.

Daniel Lawse, Consultant at Verdis Group.

Daniel (BA, Creighton) is Principal, Chief Century Thinker at Verdis Group.  He helps organizations think long term and develop practical strategies that help them thrive today and for generations to come by helping them develop Sustainability Master Plans and implementing sustainable strategies as well as by leading regenerative leadership workshops.

Tom Deall, Owner of Chick-Fil-A Bellevue

Tom Owns the Chick-Fil-A in Bellevue.  Tom holds three MA’s: one in marriage and family counseling from U. Holy Cross, one in Military Security Policy from Air War College, and one in Theology from St. Leo U, and a BS in Psychology from U. Arizona.

1:30: “Good Work” Panel

Our Panelists will discuss the “good work” they try to produce in their unique businesses:

Dusty Davidson, Technology Entrepreneur

Dusty is best known for his work with Silicon Prairie News & Big Omaha, but have been involved with a number of things over the years, and I’m currently the co-founder and CEO of a WordPress hosting company called Flywheel. He is very  passionate about startups, especially in Omaha.

Kari Yost, Director of HR, Thrasher

Kari,  originally from Sioux City, IA. Got her BA in Human Resources and Management from Morningside College. She worked at ConAgra for 8 years, holding various positions. In 2015, she joined Thrasher because the company’s purpose, mission and values. Kari is currently the Director of Human Resources.

Mark Ruch, General Manager,Object Partners

Born and raised in Omaha, Mark attended Creighton Prep and then received a BA in MIS from UNO.  Currently General Manager of the OPI Omaha branch, Mark has been a software engineer for 16 years, with experience working in start-ups, Fortune 500 and midsize companies.

3pm: “Good Wealth” Keynote
Charles Clark, Economist, St. John’s (NY)

Charles Clark is Senior Fellow, Vincentian Center for Church and Society and Professor of Economics. He earned a B.A. from Fordham University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research, writing his dissertation under the supervision of Robert Heilbronner.  He has more than 130 publications (8 books), including Economic Theory and Natural Philosophy (1992), Pathways to a Basic Income (with John Healy) (1997); The Basic Income Guarantee: Ensuring Progress and Prosperity in the 21st Century (2002); History and Historians of Political Economy (1994); Institutional Economics and the Theory of Social Value (1995); Unemployment in Ireland (1998) and Rethinking Abundance (2005).

Clark finds much of contemporary economics to be ideologically driven, not empirically driven, leading to serious social problems.  He believes that applying Catholic Social Teaching to real world economics can offer  solutions that benefits everyone.

Please join us for this year’s Business, Faith and Common Good Symposium at the Heider College of Business in the Harper Center Ballroom at 602 N. 20th Street, Omaha!  Panel on Good Goods at 12:15, Good Work at 130, Keynote on Good Wealth at 3, and reception follows at 4:15.  All are welcome!

Thursday evening the business, faith and common good speaker series welcomed legal scholar and philosopher  Gary Chartier of La Sierra University to Creighton’s campus.  Dr. Chartier, identifies as a “left-wing market anarchist”, who is pro-free-market although critical of much of capitalism as it stands today.

According to Dr. Chartier, in the current market system, the state works with particular companies and interests to help dispossess people of opportunities and to maintain structures which disallow competition.  The problem is the state-sanctioned mechanisms by which those who have keep those who don’t from achieving a share of the wealth.  This can happen through monopolies, lobbied-regulations which favor established companies (often lobbied for by those companies protected), etc.  The problem, according to Dr. Chartier, is in part the state-ist control of markets and so the solution is to supplant the state governments (which are themselves area-monopolies over particular land areas) with other forms of institutions, such as mutual aid societies.

Chartier agrees with Michael Novak that we are “more sinners than saints” but state control is not the solution because state control of aspects of society merely consolidates power into the hands of a few.  What is better he thinks is a distribution to a multiplicity of institutions, but not states.  Government is no panacea to the problem of self-centeredness of individuals.  It only exacerbates it.

Justice will come from greater liberty, Chartier says, not only because people will take more responsibility for their actions (since no one will bail them out (GM, Banks in 2007)) and without state-sanctioned crony capitalism, real free markets will exist without the corporate special interest subsidies and other freedom-limiting artificial barriers to truly free markets and liberty.  As it is, real competition and real ability to enter the market are both restrained by artificial constructs of the cooperation between established corporate entities and governments who work to protect those companies.

Chartier made it clear that he is not interested in eliminating regulation in order to  allow the large corporations to allow them to do whatever they want.  He thinks the regulations in place are what sustain the corporations in many cases.   He instead advocates that the rich ‘eat themselves’ by eliminating the subsidies and special regulations which protect them and oppress competition, which would lead to actual competition which would likely undermine the companies which are presently protected.  He argues that if the state sanctioned protection of these companies was eliminated, they would collapse, and people would experience more justice through the real freedom of the market.

Dr. Chartier brought a thought provoking and challenging view of the market, and Creighton was blessed to have him come to campus!  — Andy Gustafson

Note on Dr. Chartier:  Gary Chartier (La Sierra University) is Distinguished Professor of Law and Business Ethics and Associate Dean of the Tom and Vi Zapara School of Business at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of thirteen other books, including Public Practice, Private Law (Cambridge, 2016), Anarchy and Legal Order (Cambridge, 2013), Economic Justice and Natural Law (Cambridge, 2009), and (with Chad Van Schoelandt) The Routledge Handbook of Anarchy and Anarchist Thought (Routledge, 2019). His byline has appeared over forty times in journals including the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Legal Theory, and Law and Philosophy. He is a member of the American Philosophical Association and the Alliance of the Libertarian Left and a senior fellow of the Center for a Stateless Society.

THE BFCGI SPEAKER SERIES IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY:

Mary Hirschfeld, economist and theologian from Villanova, spoke to a crowded room about Christian concerns in economics, particularly economic exclusion on Thursday night at Heider College of Business.  Dr. Hirschfeld has an interesting story.  A Harvard-trained economist, she had a tenured position in Los Angeles for 15 years before going through a dramatic conversion to become a Catholic.  Shortly after, she left her tenured position as an economist and began studies in theology at Notre Dame, where she achieved her second Ph.D, this time in theology.  Eventually she landed at Villanova, where she combines her concern for faith issues with her knowledge of economics.

Dr. Hirschfeld’s talk focused on the concept of inequality, and particularly, what a Christian theologian should bring to the discussion which is unique.  While a lot of concern is focused on inequality, Dr. Hirschfeld challenged us to consider to think as Christians about economics and focus instead on how we use money to protect ourselves and exclude others and to define our status in society.  She pointed out that Aristotle said money should be considered like medicine– a certain amount is needed to fulfill a particular end.  But many times, she said, the debate about inequality is like having a debate about who has more aspirins– “I really only need two aspirins to deal with my headache, but we get into debates about I only have 10 aspirin and you have 12, or 20!”

What is it that we really need?  The quest to maximize, and to earn more and more and spend more and more is part of what undermines our happiness.  If we consider wealth as “having what we need” we make ourselves poorer by expanding our financial obligations by aquiring more and more, which then requires more of our efforts towards maintaining our own created needs, and away from concern for others and the common good.  We should instead think about what a reasonable amount is for us to live on, and to try to stay within those parameters.  When you do this, Dr. Hirschfeld said, you find a real freedom and a lack of stress because you aren’t trying to maximize your income and purchasing power and acquisitions.  But as Christians, we are especially called to own private property so that we can use it for the common good and share with those in need.  Profit is good, and making money in the free market is great, but setting limits on one’s own ‘economic requirements’ is a matter of spiritual health for us.

Drawing on Pope Francis’ concerns regarding economic exclusion and exploitation, Dr. Hirschfeld reframed the discussion on inequality, saying that the real problem in society is not so much the 1%, but the top 1/3 of us who want to protect our economic status above the other 2/3 by buying into the right school districts, getting our kids in the right colleges, getting the white collar not blue collar jobs, going to the church where aspiring people like ourselves attend, using services to help set ourselves apart in society and having expectations of retirement, vacationing and other types of behavior all which help separate us from the ‘others’ and exclude them.  As Christians, we need to overcome class and socioeconomic differences, but we create lifestyles for ourselves which create a great chasm between us and the ‘working class’ and rest of the others.  In some ways we actively want those on the ‘other side of the tracks’ to stay there– because that is how we distinguish ourselves and maintain our social standing securely.

After the public talk, Dr. Hirschfeld met with the business, faith and common good seminar class and we discussed some of these matters further, as well as St. Thomas on private property and concern for the common good.  Again, Mary challenged us to think about the human-social dimensions of economics and to seriously consider maintaining finite expectations of the amount of money we think we need to live.  It is far to easy to use up whatever we have and feel that we need a little more– no matter how much we earn.  She shared that until her conversion, she was always of the opinion that ‘if only I could get a 10% raise, then everything would be great’ (even after multiple 10% raises).   But somehow at conversion, she was able to learn to really focus on what she really wanted, and to stop spending on a lot of frivolous things which really did not bring her happiness.  This in turn allowed her to tithe more and to share generously with others, without hesitation.  An open ended maximization view of what we might earn and spend leads to a lack of definition and ironically, to a lack of satisfaction.

It was fantastic to have Dr. Hirschfeld be with us at Creighton, and we look forward to her book which will be forthcoming from Harvard University Press in 2018!  Her talk will be aired on KIOS lunch talks sometime in the winter.

Many thanks to our generous sponsors of the BFCGI talks:

office of mission and ministry