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ben_smitty's review
2.0
Meh. It was ok. Although Grudem wanted to clear some misconceptions concerning business, I found the theme he was using repetitive and oversimplified. There were numerous places that he could have elaborated. I found his solution to world poverty to be ridiculously black and white; an indication that he has stepped into something outside of his expertise. It seems that he should have left the chapter blank since he does not have a background in economics
klkramer2's review
3.0
Good but I hoped there would be more time spent on why these concepts around money and mutually beneficial economy are "gifts from God".
thesimplepastor's review against another edition
2.0
A while ago my friend Matt Hosier asked me if I read this book. I hadn't but I have now. In Business for the Glory of God Wayne Grudem attempts an apologetic for business. Business he feels is under attack and good Christians end up worrying that by being involved in business they are somehow falling short. So Wayne Grudem steps up to give a theological defence for making a profit. He argues that business is neither evil nor even morally neutral but inherently good and created by God.
There are 9 key areas that Grudem examines; ownership, productivity, employment, commercial transactions, profit, money, inequality of possessions, competition & borrowing and lending. He ends with a short review on the effects of the above on attitudes of the heart and the effect of business on world poverty.
Each chapter starts with a phrase: "...is fundamentally good and provides many opportunities for glorifying God but also many temptations to sin" and ends with a sentence like, "But the distortions of something good must not cause us to think the thing itself is evil..."
Grudem does a reasonable job of concisely laying out his reasons why business is good and very briefly raising some of the dangers of greed, envy and materialism. The weakest arguments by far are his argument that inequality of possessions is the way God intended things to be, that this is a good thing that gives glory to God. While extreme wealth and extreme poverty are both considered 'bad things' there's no way of drawing a line, no attempt at working out how some inequality is good but too much inequality is bad. Nor is there a recognition that in the countries that have excelled in competition, profit-making and generally getting rich are also the countries with the greatest inequality.
The other weak chapter is his concluding remarks on world poverty. Plenty of people agree with the premise that trade is better than aid but there is a naivety about his words that are worrying. The reason poor countries are poor are because of poor governance, massively inefficient bureaucracies all of which is true but it's not the whole story. No mention of unjust trade practices by rich nations, no mention of corruption in developed nations or crimes such as slavery and colonialism or undemocratic practices in our own institutions. the picture is black and white and suggests the fault for being poor is with the poor.
Finally, the book seems aimed at combating those who think business is fundamentally evil and that it seems is a scheme of the devil. But who are these agents of the devil? Communists? Green eco liberals? He doesn't say, which really makes it seem like straw man arguments are being used. There is also a touching naivety about it, that we the consumers set the price for the goods we pay - or we simply would stop buying them (p41), it seems that despite food riots around the world and rising fears about energy costs at home not everything is subject to Dr Grudem's laws..
So while it is good to be in business, and it is good to equip those who are called to business, this short book is unbalanced by taking complicated issues and making them black and white. The book is not a long one (83 pages) so Dr Grudem has done good business with this book selling at £9.99.
There are 9 key areas that Grudem examines; ownership, productivity, employment, commercial transactions, profit, money, inequality of possessions, competition & borrowing and lending. He ends with a short review on the effects of the above on attitudes of the heart and the effect of business on world poverty.
Each chapter starts with a phrase: "...is fundamentally good and provides many opportunities for glorifying God but also many temptations to sin" and ends with a sentence like, "But the distortions of something good must not cause us to think the thing itself is evil..."
Grudem does a reasonable job of concisely laying out his reasons why business is good and very briefly raising some of the dangers of greed, envy and materialism. The weakest arguments by far are his argument that inequality of possessions is the way God intended things to be, that this is a good thing that gives glory to God. While extreme wealth and extreme poverty are both considered 'bad things' there's no way of drawing a line, no attempt at working out how some inequality is good but too much inequality is bad. Nor is there a recognition that in the countries that have excelled in competition, profit-making and generally getting rich are also the countries with the greatest inequality.
The other weak chapter is his concluding remarks on world poverty. Plenty of people agree with the premise that trade is better than aid but there is a naivety about his words that are worrying. The reason poor countries are poor are because of poor governance, massively inefficient bureaucracies all of which is true but it's not the whole story. No mention of unjust trade practices by rich nations, no mention of corruption in developed nations or crimes such as slavery and colonialism or undemocratic practices in our own institutions. the picture is black and white and suggests the fault for being poor is with the poor.
Finally, the book seems aimed at combating those who think business is fundamentally evil and that it seems is a scheme of the devil. But who are these agents of the devil? Communists? Green eco liberals? He doesn't say, which really makes it seem like straw man arguments are being used. There is also a touching naivety about it, that we the consumers set the price for the goods we pay - or we simply would stop buying them (p41), it seems that despite food riots around the world and rising fears about energy costs at home not everything is subject to Dr Grudem's laws..
So while it is good to be in business, and it is good to equip those who are called to business, this short book is unbalanced by taking complicated issues and making them black and white. The book is not a long one (83 pages) so Dr Grudem has done good business with this book selling at £9.99.
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