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Abstract

It is not difficult to find examples of sin in business. These include blatant individual sins like theft or fraud, as well as larger systemic failures such as negative social and ecological externalities. It is a task of Christian business ethics to address such failures, but we invariably come up against problems that defy easy solutions, no matter how scrupulously we try to root them out. This is because business itself—like all human life—exists under conditions of sin. The Calvinist notion of total depravity reframes “sin in business” as “business in sin,” necessitating greater humility about the possibility of good business, and even good business ethics. Critics of traditional accounting methods and shareholder models of business point toward this broader framework. Once we accept that no person, firm, or system is ever truly good, we find reason to question our usual assumptions and sources of wisdom, to look to new conversation partners for creative solutions, and to rely on grace in our ongoing efforts at reform, rather than on our own understanding.

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