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Full Description
Why do we work so hard at our jobs, day after day? Why is a job well done important to us? We know there is more to a career than money and prestige, but what exactly do we mean by "fulfillment"? These are old but important questions. They belong with some newly discovered ones: Why are people in business more religious than the population as a whole? What do people of business know, and what do they do, that anchors their faith? In this ground-breaking and inspiring book, Michael Novak ties together these crucial questions by explaining the meaning of work as a vocation. Work should be more than just a job -- it should be a calling.
This book explains an important part of our lives in a new way, and readers will instantly recognize themselves in its pages. A larger proportion than ever before of the world's Christians, Jews, and other peoples of faith are spending their working lives in business. Business is a profession worthy of a person's highest ideals and aspirations, fraught with moral possibilities both of great good and of great evil. Novak takes on agonizing problems, such as downsizing, the tradeoffs that must sometimes be faced between profits and human rights, and the pitfalls of philanthropy. He also examines the daily questions of how an honest day's work contributes to the good of many people, both close at hand and far away. Our work connects us with one another. It also makes possible the universal advance out of poverty, and it is an essential prerequisite of democracy and the institutions of civil society.
This book is a spiritual feast, for everyone who wants to examine how to make a life through making a living.
Contents
Contents
Introduction
PLENTY ISN'T ENOUGH
Bored with Making Money
The Anti-Business Skeptics
Three Specific Objections
A Glance Ahead
Chapter One
WHAT IS A CALLING?
Callings
Four Characteristics of a Calling
Can a Calling Remain Tacit?
Can a Calling Be Entirely Secular?
Meteorites Across the Sky
Chapter Two
LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT BUSINESS
An Overview
The Most Religious Elites
Today Most Religious People Work in Business
Morality and Us
The Only Moral Majority: Sinners
Chapter Three
A MORALLY SERIOUS CALLING
Andrew Carnegie, Wealth Creator
The Moral Case for the System qua "System"
Sinners in the System
Wrong About Capitalism
Chapter Four
FOR THE POOR AND FOR DEMOCRACY
One Cheer Is Quite Enough
But What Is "Capitalism"?
Capitalism Is Better for the Poor
A Necessary Condition for Democracy
A Necessary Condition for Capitalism
Capitalism Reduces Envy
The Tyranny of a Majority
Natural Liberty -- Political and Economic
Moral Vigilance
Chapter Five
VIRTUE IN THE MODERN CITY
Virtue in the Ancient City
Passions and Reason
Reflection and Choice
Practical Wisdom and Other Virtues
A Modem Culture of Virtue?
Our Incurious Elites
Business Depends on Virtue
Chapter Six
THREE CARDINAL VIRTUES OF BUSINESS
The Virtue of Creativity
The Virtue of Building Community
The Virtue of Practical Realism
And Don't Forget the Fun of It!
Chapter Seven
SEVEN PLUS SEVEN CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITIES
Mediating Structures, Civil Society
Seven Internal Responsibilities
Seven Responsibilities from Outside Business
Special Business Codes
A Moral Institution
Chapter Eight
BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The Transnational Firm
Morality Has Costs
Chapter Nine
MAKING THINGS BETTER
The Bad Side of Downsizing
New Ideas for Labor Unions
Organizing to Help the Homeless
Solidarity with the World's Poor
Chapter Ten
GIVING IT ALL AWAY
Carnegie's Strategy
In Giving, Be Vigilant: Caveat Donor!
The Glory of the Nation
Endnotes
Bibliography
arAcknowledgments
Index
