The Gods of Business

By Hallqvist Todd Gerald Albertson

Do you have a business that fits right in with the 21st century world?

Do you also have faith and find it hard to make these two vastly different Gods to seamlessly blend?

This book seeks to help you find common ground so that both can flourish!

Religion and et

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hallqvist Todd Gerald Albertson
• Release date: Aug 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781737362791

Hallqvist Todd Gerald Albertson

Todd Albertson, a traveler to the four corners of the globe and over 125 countries, writes and teaches about leadership, intentional business models, and social innovation. His passion is to help people harness the power of business to solve some of the world's toughest and biggest problems.

Book preview

The Gods of Business: The Intersection of Faith and the Marketplace

Hallqvist Todd Gerald Albertson

Copyright © 2007–2021 by Hallqvist Todd Gerald Albertson

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the author.

Published by:

Scattered Voices, Pasadena, California

First Edition, April 18, 2007

Second Edition, August 31, 2009

Third Edition, April 5, 2010

Fourth Edition, July 12, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-7373627-8-4 (Ingramspark Paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-7373627-9-1 (Ingramspark e-book)

ISBN: 978-1-7373627-3-9 (Amazon e-book)

LOCC: 2007900080

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Albertson, Todd, 1965–

The Gods of Business: The Intersection of Faith and the Marketplace / Todd Albertson pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-7373627-2-2

1. Religions. 2. Business ethics. 3. Business — Religious aspects. I. Albertson, Todd, 1965- II. Title.

llF5387 .A577 2007

201/.665

2007900080

This book is dedicated to my father Clarence who taught me that there are ethics in business. He did this without piety or proclamation, but rather by how he acted on a daily basis.

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without a countless number of guinea pigs. For at least three years they heard me lecture about the subjects covered in these pages. I can only imagine what the first group went through and probably should apologize to them, but their patient attention and polite questions, combined with that of subsequent groups, gave me the great gift of refining my thoughts.

All thoughts need tempering, and for the fire and cold water of that process, I must thank my former professor and mentor, Dr. A. Norashkharian. His thoughts and feedback helped hammer a concept into a completed work.

I have a very special thank you to the editor of my first edition, Jeff Andrus. Jeff was an award-winning screenwriter, a great novelist, a wise and patient counselor, and a good friend. He is missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

Some of the material in this book was inspired by conversations, emails, thoughts, and suggestions from a variety of students and colleagues, most of whom remain nameless but not unappreciated in my heart.

Contents

Part 1: Foreword

Foreword to the Fourth Edition

A Word to the Reader

Chapter 1: The Dilemma

Prince Henry the Navigator

Religion

Business Ethics

Part 2: Religions Originating in China and Japan

Chapter 2: Confucianism

History

Sacred Texts

Branches of Confucianism

Confucianism in the Marketplace

Chapter 3: Shintoism

History

Sacred Texts

Core Beliefs

Branches of Shintoism

Shintoism in the Marketplace

Part 3: Religions Originating in India

Chapter 4: Buddhism

History

Sacred Texts

Branches of Buddhism

Chapter 5: Hinduism

History

Sacred Texts

Branches of Hinduism

Hinduism in the Marketplace

Chapter 6: Sikhism

History

Sacred Texts

Core Beliefs

Branches of Sikhism

Sikhism in the Marketplace

Part 4: Religions Originating in the Middle East

Chapter 7: Christianity

History

Sacred Texts

Core Beliefs

Branches of Christianity

Christianity in the Marketplace

Chapter 8: Islam

History

Sacred Texts

Core Beliefs

Branches of Islam

Islam in the Marketplace

Chapter 9: Judaism

History

Sacred Texts

Core Beliefs

Branches of Judaism

Judaism in the Marketplace

Part 5: The Religion of Secular Postmodernism

Chapter 10: Secular Postmodernism

History

Sacred Texts

Core Beliefs

Branches of Secular Postmodernism

Secular Postmodernism in the Marketplace

Part 6: Epilogue

Chapter 11: Afterword

Part 1

Foreword

Foreword to the Fourth Edition

I

n the first edition, I tried to write a book in which I merely acted as a tour guide. I gave the histories of major religions, their core beliefs, and examples of sacred texts. I left it to the reader to determine how beliefs applied to marketplace matters and whether those beliefs were good or bad. This approach pleased many.

Nonetheless, approximately 75 percent of the feedback I received about this book asked for more commentary or clarification on the application of religious worldviews to business practices. To accommodate these requests, the latest edition of this book contains a new chapter 11 with additional material. My hope was to leave the objective approach in place in the rest of the book while balancing my subjective analysis in the concluding chapter.

As for the criticism, I have never liked labels or generalizations, but they do help locate individuals on the general map of beliefs. And in any overview of a subject, which is what this book is, there really is not a way to communicate basic principles and concepts without generalizing.

Todd Albertson

Kathmandu, Nepal

November 13, 2020

A Word to the Reader

T

his book was a long time in the making. Its genesis can be traced to a business I owned that had strategic relationships with two companies that were very religious in their organizational culture. The principals of each company prayed before meals, shut down operations for observance of religious holidays, and openly discussed the importance of faith in daily life.

Their religions clearly promoted ethics that taught that lying, cheating, and dishonesty were wrong. I assumed that these standards would be put into action in everyday business practices. I was mistaken! When the microscopic veneer of faith was pulled away, I found far more dishonesty and unethical behavior than in any company I had dealt with in the past or would in the future. It was as if these executives had never embraced a moral code of conduct. I faced a conundrum.

I didn’t have to be an anthropologist or a sociologist to know that people sincerely hold religious convictions. But I didn’t have to spend much time watching the nightly news to see that religious faith didn’t always translate well into individual or corporate conduct. I explored this idea in a dissertation entitled The Impact of Religious Worldview on Business Ethics and Practices in Twentieth-Century Western Society. That paper gave rise to this book.

Writing this book was an exhausting experience. The first draft was well over 1,500 pages in length with footnotes longer than the final published version. The subjects of worldview, religion, and ethics are so wide sweeping that I could have kept writing and writing and writing, only to produce a document so detailed in its analysis as to be completely unusable except as a doorstop. The businessperson in me decided there was not much of a market for doorstops. Therefore, I rewrote and edited it for a clean, clear, practical guide, a jargon-free explanation of the world’s major religions and how those faiths intersect with business.

With the exception of the first and last chapters, every chapter covers a major religion and is broken into the following sections:

Introduction

History

Sacred Texts

Core Beliefs

Branches

In the Marketplace

Introduction and History are obvious. Sacred Texts offers a convenient summary of important writings. Core Beliefs and Branches also summarize the key aspects of each faith’s tradition. This book will frustrate some because I don’t spoon-feed the reader, as if you were unable to draw a conclusion for yourself. Consequently, the sections applying religion to the marketplace are short compared to preceding sections. My reasoning is that once understanding is gained from a religion’s history and core beliefs, application to the marketplace is often straightforward and self-explanatory.

I do not decide the issues of the present day. I do try, however, to lay out the bare bones of the beliefs of the major religions, the basic ideas and values that many religions share toward business, and the most likely ways that humanity expresses its various faiths in the marketplace.

I hope I have kept The Gods of Business simple but subtle, letting you the reader draw your own conclusions.

Todd Albertson

Bangkok, Thailand

August 3, 2005

Chapter 1

The Dilemma

I SEE IN THE NEAR FUTURE A CRISIS APPROACHING THAT UNNERVES ME AND CAUSES ME TO TREMBLE FOR THE SAFETY OF MY COUNTRY . . .

CORPORATIONS HAVE BEEN ENTHRONED AND AN ERA OF CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES WILL FOLLOW, AND THE MONEY OF THE COUNTRY WILL ENDEAVOR TO PROLONG ITS REIGN BY WORKING UPON THE PREJUDICES OF THE PEOPLE UNTIL ALL WEALTH IS AGGREGATED IN A FEW HANDS AND THE REPUBLIC IS DESTROYED.

I FEEL AT THIS MOMENT MORE ANXIETY FOR THE SAFETY OF MY COUNTRY THAN EVER BEFORE, EVEN IN THE MIDST OF WAR.

—President Abraham Lincoln, 1864

Prince Henry the Navigator

P

rince Henry the Navigator (AD 1394–1460) was the son of King João I of Portugal. Henry organized and financed many sea expeditions. His most famous were in search of a sea route to the rich spice trade of the Indies, and en route, he explored the west coast of Africa.

Prince Henry encountered great difficulty persuading his captains to sail beyond Cape Bojador in the southern Sahara. They believed the legend that only the Green Sea of Darkness existed beyond this point. They thought the sun was so close to the earth that a person’s skin would turn black. The sea would boil. Ships would catch on fire. Hidden monsters lurked and waited to smash the ships and eat their crews!

On the first attempt, Henry sent his ships out with orders to keep close to the coastline. A couple of weeks after they left, they returned to Portugal. Their captains told the prince they could not find a sea route to India because they had come to