Thinking Theologically about Entrepreneurship: Why Does It Matter?

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Herbert Stephens
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1 1 Thinking Theologically about : Why Does It Matter? Acton University, Thursday, June 21, 2018 Joe Gorra, VeritasLifeCenter.org PART ONE: Understanding Thinking Theologically & A. Thinking theologically as Public Theology 1. Involves thinking with theological [Christian or otherwise] traditions as stewarded traditions of knowledge, wisdom and insight into what is real Invitation to all stakeholders of entrepreneurship It is to value giving and drinking from various wells within historic Christian witness (e.g. transnational and historic theological traditions and more local and indigenous theological reflection) Five Common Christian Sources of understanding: Bible as divine revelation Common grace Jesus as the Lord of Interactive, experiential knowing by the Holy Spirit Tradition as knowledge, wisdom and insight for the sake of innovation The Opportunity that a Theology of Creates: To move beyond mere cultural scripts on entrepreneurship to a fuller, grander story about entrepreneurship in God s world, under His good and benevolent authority. 2. Takeaway: is real. Theology deals with what is real, indeed, what is ultimately real. Therefore, to think theologically about entrepreneurship is to help steward how entrepreneurship can be truly understood.

2 2 3. Lesson #1: Theology is a vital stakeholder and steward of the story of entrepreneurship and its future. B. as Social-Cultural Phenomena 1. The meaning of entrepreneurship today is told to us by many different socialcultural story-tellers and scripts. 2. Schools of. See Chart in the Addendum. 3. Popular Presuppositional Image: Entrepreneurial activity primarily the result of a unique quality exercised by human agency [whether individually, by teams, or an organization] and less the result of institutional conditions, environments and frameworks. Sam Gregg on institutional dimensions of entrepreneurship:... in the midst of this enthusiasm about entrepreneurship, we risk forgetting that entrepreneurship s capacity to create wealth is heavily determined by the environments in which we live. In many business schools today, it s entirely possible to study entrepreneurship without any reference being made to the role played by factors such as rule of law, property rights, and low taxes in stimulating wealth-creating entrepreneurship. In short, entrepreneurship doesn t just depend on a particular understanding of human nature. Its wealth-creating character also requires a certain moral and institutional setting. If taxes are high, property rights unprotected, and corruption the norm, then the environment embodies major deterrents to wealth-generating entrepreneurship. Why would people risk being entrepreneurial when they can t assume their ideas won t be stolen or their profits arbitrarily confiscated? We should, however, also ask what happens when incentives to entrepreneurship become misaligned and are instead found in politics rather than the economy. In these cases, entrepreneurship is no longer about creating ideas or products that others value. Instead people become entrepreneurial in identifying and exploiting political contacts and bureaucratic opportunities to amass power and/or transfer wealth to themselves and their clients and supporters. The implication is that anyone serious about promoting wealth-creating entrepreneurship must at some point direct attention toward how the moral, legal, and political environment aligns incentives. This may indeed involve considering controversial subjects, ranging from the impact of tax rates on entrepreneurship to politically incorrect matters such as whether certain cultures are simply not amenable to wealth creation.

3 3 like everything else doesn t exist in a vacuum. It s long past the time we stopped pretending it does. [Sam Gregg, isn t enough, Acton.org (2009)]. 4. Takeaway: A theology of entrepreneurship can reflect on phenomena of entrepreneurship, including its assumptions and about its different schools of thought. But it need not settle for mere cultural scripts about entrepreneurship as its sources of understanding. 5. Lesson #2: A theology of entrepreneurship can work with and even open-up and create intentional mental space for complimenting and contrasting an understanding of entrepreneurship and its implications. Pay attention to the inherited cultural scripts. One does not have to take them as givens. PART TWO: Why is a Theology of needed? What is its Posture toward? C. Why it Matters: A theology of entrepreneurship Offers a non-materialistic framework for understanding the human person with entrepreneurial capacity; thus, it creates possibility of a fuller mental space for thinking differently about features and contours of entrepreneurial work. 2. Supplies different sources and nodes of authority for reflecting on the value of entrepreneurship. 3. Illuminates the interrelationship between value creation in a material sense and role of moral and spiritual capital as integral to human capital. 4. Integrates with other relevant theological reflection on issues of public life, including theologies of work, vocation, economics. 5. Envisions a basis for an enriching pastoral theology of entrepreneurship. 6. Models why there need not be a false dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. Without a theology of entrepreneurship can get coopted by mainly a materialist perspective, or prevalent social-cultural scripts, or by other knowledge claims aimed at functionalist views of the human person, material value creation alone, etc. 8. becomes understood in a thin way, lacking conceptual thickness or fullness of value; disconnected from moral and spiritual value as integral to realizing human capital.

4 4 9. could still get treated theologically; but that theological reflection would be more cosmetic, an add-on. 10. Takeaway: Theology is integral to thinking about entrepreneurship if entrepreneurship is to be understood in a fuller way. 11. Lesson #3: A theology of entrepreneurship can contribute value to the study of entrepreneurship by demonstrating that theological accounts should be dining at the table with non-theological accounts, exercising its authority to bear witness to moral and spiritual reality. D. Postures of a Theology of. Any one of these postures would be worthwhile! A theology of entrepreneurship can act like a Explorer: It can journey with received habits of thought, practices, overall mindset. 2. Illuminator: It can clarify, question, illuminate, reframe ideas and images of an entrepreneur(ship) from a particular advantage point. 3. Catalyzer: It can open up what is possible and plausible to believe and understand. 4. Reformer and Renewer: It can help transform disciplines of entrepreneurship 5. Stakeholder and steward of a calling. It can create pathways for distinctly nurturing and cultivating entrepreneurial thought and activity. 6. Takeaway: There is not one way and only one way - for how theological reflection can posture itself toward better understanding entrepreneurship. 7. Lesson #4: Theologies of can help rewrite or reimagine the good of entrepreneurship in the 21st century.

5 5 CONCLUSION E. Hope Toward Future Theologies of 1. What if the Holy and Creative Spirit of God is a brilliant exemplar of entrepreneurial work, by how He repeatedly brings about unique new life, or organizes people around a common mission to bring about good in the world, or by how he uses material and spiritual reality? 2. What if the vocation of the entrepreneur is integral to the mission and mind of God for how God enables provision to the righteous and unrighteous alike? 3. What if entrepreneurial activity is how God chooses to flourish economies and develop communities? Recommended Resources Baker, Bruce, as a Sign of Common Grace, Journal of Markets and Morality 18:1 (2015): Ballor Jordan and Victor Claar, The Soul of the Entrepreneur: A Christian Anthropology of Creativity, Innovation and Liberty, Journal of Ethics and (Spring 2016): Clark, Catherine and Christian Harrison article, : an assimilated multi-perspective review, Journal of Small Business & (2018), Gregg, Sam, isn t enough, Acton.org (May 13, 2009): Pearcy, Anthony, in the Catholic Tradition (Lexington Books, 2010). (VLC) is a California-based 501(c)3 religious nonprofit aimed at advancing the Christian tradition as a knowledge and wisdom tradition integral for the flourishing of human life and society. VLC is currently engaged in a multi-year theology of entrepreneurship research project aimed at resourcing conversations with scholars, pastors, business and community leaders.

6 6 Addendum: Schools of Chart [adapted from Catherine Clark and Christian Harrison, : an assimilated multi-perspective review, Journal of Small Business & (2018), 6]. Schools of Thought [often interrelated] Great Person School of Psychological Characteristics School of Classic School of New venture creation The management school of entrepreneurship Basic Assumption as an inherent predisposition. The sixth sense of entrepreneurial intuition. Trait profiles of entrepreneurs, which are not inherent but capable of development. Entrepreneurs epitomized by their creativity and innovation. The process of the individual entrepreneur creating new economic entities. The entrepreneur as a manager of organizational activities through learned behaviors. Possible Theological Inquiry [Gorra Examples] How might an entrepreneurial intuition be understood given the imago Dei? How might a theology of creation and renewal address whether entrepreneurs are more born, not made? How might success and failure be understood, theologically? How might we understand the development of entrepreneurs in light of issues of moral and spiritual formation and maturation? If entrepreneurial traits diminish or become corrupted, how might we understand this phenomenon, theologically? How might a theological perspective illuminate nature and significance of human risk, creativity, innovation, and discovery in entrepreneurial role? Is there a theological grounding for seeing entrepreneurial role driven by innovation and not merely a profit motive? Theologically, what does it look like to value an entrepreneurial process and method? How might the freedom of human agency and entrepreneurial intent be understood in this process? Is the process deterministic, e.g., a condition for action? How might managerial and administrative organizational sense of entrepreneurship be understood, theologically? How does this sense of manager absorber of uncertainty, rational decision-maker, one who offers control and superintendence compare to biblical notion of steward and servant-leader?

7 7 Schools of Thought [often interrelated] The leadership school of entrepreneurship Opportunity processes The intrapreneurial school of entrepreneurship New entry processes Entrepreneurial teams Social entrepreneurship Basic Assumption The entrepreneur as the motivator of a collective endeavor. The individual entrepreneurs means of creating entrepreneurial direction within an economic entity. The capability of enacting entrepreneurship within established organizations. The ability to and means by which an entrepreneur creates opportunity through accessing new markets. Extending the study of entrepreneurship from the individual to the team process. Entrepreneurial activity which is motivated by the achievement of social value. Possible Theological Inquiry [Gorra Examples] Theologically, how might we understand the role of getting someone to act in light a leader s charisma or position? Are there other means and models for entrepreneurial leaders motiving a collective endeavor? Are modern Senior Pastor models often imitative of this school of thought? How might apostolic leadership compare/contrast to this sense of leadership? How might alertness to opportunity, which is often hidden, be known by a form of faith, not by sight? How might intrapreneurial activity be understood in light of the agency of the Holy Spirit among an organized people, like a local church/parish? How might intrapreneurial capacity be understood in light of role of gifts and strengths in a community of people? Is a servant-leader model of leadership conducive to intrapreneurial activity? How might the process of church planting be a form of entrepreneurial activity? What can we learn from the Holy Spirit s activity as an agent of new things in a particular context among particular relationships of exchange? In what sense might such ability and means be understood as an inherent disposition. Is there a theology of teams that could be applicable to entrepreneurial teams (e.g., leadership by elders)? How might trinitarian activity model individuality and a unity of shared, interdependently-realized mission? Theologically, how might we understand the interrelationship between spiritual, social and economic value creation and the role of human capital therein?

Master of Arts Course Descriptions

Bible and Theology Master of Arts Course Descriptions BTH511 Dynamics of Kingdom Ministry (3 Credits) This course gives students a personal and Kingdom-oriented theology of ministry, demonstrating God