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Nash Laura: Believers in Business (Nashville TN, Thomas Nelson,1994)
Based on interviews with about 85 Christian CEOs and executives in some major corporations in America. It explores how these executives deal with ethical dilemmas in their business lives. The author summarises their experiences as a series of sustained tensions between personal faith and seven basic elements of capitalism. She identifies these tensions as:

  1. Love for God/the pursuit of profit (the need to serve two masters)
  2. Concern for people/the competitive drive
  3. Care for employees/profit obligations
  4. Humility/the self-importance of success
  5. Family/work
  6. Charity/wealth
  7. Being God's agents in the secular city

Nash has observed three different responses to these tensions -

  1. The generalist - who never gets down to specific examples so denies there's any real tension here.
  2. The justifier - who generally assumes that the business side of the equation is supported by the faith side anyway so there is no real ethical conflict.
  3. The seeker - who is acutely aware that there are points where the concerns of faith and business conflict so expects to struggle with difficult choices in order to do what is right.

Nash (whose own religious background is not the same as those she interviewed) was surprised to find how many people in her study fitted the 'seeker' category. She was impressed with the way they worked through ethical dilemmas. The 'seeker' she says recognises the tensions between Christian belief human failing and economic realities and so wrestles with Christian conscience on the one hand and business responsibilities on the other in order to seek the most compatible response possible. She hastens to add that these people were also realists rather than idealists in the sense that they certainly didn't subscribe to the concept of trying to be 'perfect' Christians doing the perfect Christian deed.

Nash also notes that in many cases 'seeking' activity leads to alternative courses of action which not only express Christian ethical concerns but often strokes of economic brilliance as well. So she suggests if Christian people can learn to live more consciously on the intersection of the worlds of faith and business some very creative solutions to ethical dilemmas are possible.
But Nash warns if we want to give expression to a profound connection between faith and economic activity we are in a delicate position. Trying to maintain a traditional biblical worldview while participating in the modern culture of the corporation - neither constructing an invisible wall between these two nor suggesting that they are wholly complementary (as the generalist and justifier tend to do) - is not easy.

The seeker then must attempt to reconcile these two worlds and make them relevant to each other by using the tension between business and faith to create a combination of economic and spiritual activity. The trick Nash concludes is to maintain some distance - but not too much distance - between the opposing forces of faith and business.

If faith and economic thinking are too close then they will collapse on each other and a secular wholly rationalised mindset will result. If they are too distant - as in a completely privatised faith - faith concerns will no longer impact on the economic world. We may profess to be Christian but we will no longer venture into the world as Christians. Faith will become just what we do with our leisure time."
Referred to in Mackenzie Alistair: "Compatibility or Conflict? : Christian faith in the marketplace" Reality magazine iss 38. Mackenzie says:

"One of the most important tasks we face as Christians is helping people engage in the sort of critical reflection that will enable us to understand the nature of the struggle between faith and business concerns between economic values and other important human and spiritual values. But these are seldom addressed in traditional ethics courses nor in church. Church takes faith very seriously but not business. In fact many business people think that church leaders assume an anti-business stance - perhaps one reason for this is that many church leaders think that business people take business very seriously but not faith!"

"... when it comes to challenging business leaders about social responsibility the pronouncements of church leaders will not be nearly as convincing as voices raised from within the business community itself. I am hopeful that a wider movement of critical thinking among business leaders is emerging."

"Jeremiah 29: 4-7 said 'Seek the peace and prosperity of the city and pray to the LORD on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare'. ... the words of Jesus from Matthew 6: 24-34 'No one can serve two masters . . . . You cannot serve God and wealth ... Don't worry about life about food or drink or your body or clothing ... Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness'.... My dream is that we will grow a generation of Christian 'seekers' who will have that combination of biblical insight and business acumen of lively idealism and earthy realism that will provide marketplace leadership with integrity and creativity for a new generation. People who have earned the right to speak persuasively both from the church and to the church. People who have heard and understood both challenges: 'seek the peace and prosperity of the city' and 'seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness'."