Spiritual Enterprise: Doing Virtuous Business [Hardcover]

Theodore Roosevelt Malloch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2008

Business leaders have been deeply impressed by the research of scholars on the role of social capital in our personal and professional lives. But in this timely book, Theodore Malloch argues that spiritual capital provides businesses with people with the strong personal convictions, moral scruples and spiritual discipline that yield success. Malloch shows how spiritual capital encourages the virtues of compassion, forgiveness, perserverence, patience, courage, humility and self control that a healthy market requires.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (May 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159403222X
• ISBN-13: 978-1594032226
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,124,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Malloch not up to the task he set for himself, July 30, 2010

By 

David Franz (Shafter, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spiritual Enterprise: Doing Virtuous Business (Hardcover)

Malloch argues that business, at its best, is virtuous and that business is the place where "virtue is to be found in the modern world" (19). This is a ambitious claim. Malloch includes cases of exemplary companies in an appendix, but for the main text relies on a host of great thinkers stretching back to Plato and Aristotle to defend it. This was probably a mistake.

Admittedly I've not read all (or even most) of the books that Malloch mentions. However, I take comfort from the fact that, based on his treatment of those I have read, neither has Malloch. For example, Malloch cites Alasdair MacIntyre on virtue, without noting that in the very book he cites, MacIntyre spends entire sections laying out why the business corporation stands opposed to his understanding of virtue. Malloch cites Tocqueville on the importance of association and suggests that businesses can fill that role without noting that Tocqueville disagreed. In one of the few sections in Democracy in America where Tocqueville mentions business he argues that companies can form no "genuine association."

This kind of slippage between his representation of scholars and the reality of what they said is apparent whenever I found Malloch moving into territory I am familiar with. At best this book is sloppy, at worst dishonest, and either way it is thoroughly pretentious.

I am sympathetic to the impulse behind this book. I think business is a moral endeavor too, but this view is not furthered by ignoring or misrepresenting the objections of people you wish were allies. Authorship is a moral endeavor too.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Business, July 1, 2011

By 

John Ausmus - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spiritual Enterprise: Doing Virtuous Business (Hardcover)

Doing Virtuous Business by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch is an excellent book that presents the theory that creating wealth through virtuous means is a Biblically sound principle.

The book explores how companies that follow an ethical business model often perform at a higher level than their competitors.

This will be an excellent book for those that have the notion that capitalism is inherently evil as it presents the idea that business conducted ethically is actually a virtue.

Those in business as entrepreneurs will gain valuable information from this book to use in their day-to-day operations.

I would quickly recommend this book to anyone that studies business or has an interest in learning more about businesses that operate in a Biblically ethical way.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

4.0 out of 5 stars Profit is not the only purpose of a corporation, July 5, 2011

By 

Oscar Cardozo (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spiritual Enterprise: Doing Virtuous Business (Hardcover)

That is a powerful statement, and the key question to examine here is: do companies have a spirit? According to Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, yes they do. And this spirit has been behaving very bad, at least for some large companies. For sure, it is always the bad news that spread around the fastest.

Every time we talk about companies or capitalism, the bad examples are mentioned over and over, as WorldCom, Enron, Adelphia and others. Why? We need to remember that large corporations are not the only ones that exist, as most of the companies in the world are small and medium size, and they also have a spirit.

Your company has a spirit.

Examining everything, rejecting what is bad and doing what is good should be a great way of living our lives, and that is a good motto for companies as well. Is your company doing good? Is your company behaving according to its values?

Sir John Templeton was a key motivator for this project, and its Foundation was one of the key benefactors.

This book is not for everybody, read it, and you will enjoy it if you are open to discuss new ideas and be reminded on why doing business is good.

Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program and was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. The review was based on the ebook version.