If Plato was correct that beauty and goodness are indispensable ideals—and Christians can readily adopt this point into their understanding that we are created in God’s good and beautiful image—then this has big implications as to how humans flourish and find life satisfaction. And this includes their jobs in the workplace.
I know the phrase “we-self” may seem odd. But there’s not a better term for the idea that Aristotle introduced many years ago. What Aristotle saw is how, within healthy and deep relationships, other people’s joys can become our own joys; and other people’s sorrows can become our own sorrows.
The more information you cooperatively share and receive from others, the harder it becomes to act unethically toward them. Ethical decision-making begins to take care of itself.
If you think of ethics as a set of rules or prohibitions we’re not to violate, then you’ve completely missed the point of what ethics is for these three philosophers.
Dr. Svetlana Papazoz and her husband, Michael, are using their business and pastoral backgrounds to plant in the Richmond, VA area “a marketplace church that integrates faith and entrepreneurship.”
If Wesley isn’t well-known today for placing such an emphasis on what we do with our money, the reason is not that he didn’t talk about it very much.
It’s imperative that churches in general, when they minister to people in their neighborhoods, do so from a position of economic empowerment. But does this mean that the Church is supposed to be some kind of employment center? Well, maybe it does.
Not all our consumerist desires are bad. Some seem to be morally neutral—like a desire for a particular color shirt, given that one needs to wear a shirt. Other consumerist desires are actually good to have. So how do I know if a desire I have for some consumer item is good, or bad, or morally neutral?
“Advertising aims to teach people that they have wants—which they did not recognize before—and where such wants can be best be supplied.” Yet, contentment is an important mark of Christian maturity, allowing us to rest in God’s will for our lives.
We all need general rules of thumb to help us navigate daily decision-making. A thorough cost-benefit analysis isn’t possible for the dozens of morally relevant decisions we may face in the course of a day. But if we inevitably must rely on some rule of thumb—say, in our commercial interactions with others—what should that rule of thumb be?
I don’t think anyone can deny that the global market system has made it possible for hundreds of millions to lift themselves out of poverty. But does this mean that the market system has served the Common Good?
When businesses obey the law and act in reasonably good faith with employees and consumers, they tend to have a variety of very positive effects on the wider community. In short, rather than being value-extracting, most businesses are value-giving.
