Suzanne says:

I apologize the hyperbole, but this has to be the most painful text I’ve ever read in my academic career. I was hoping for some a well-reasoned description of how business can glorify God or how certain codes of ethics help business glorify God, but I was disappointed.

Grudem’s arguments, while mostly for things most Americans would agree upon, are poorly supported with a few random Bible verses and almost no logic whatsoever; for example, he states that since Jesus gave laws on how employers should treat their employees, God, therefore, approves of employing people, and being an employer is good. He does not mention that the Bible states that slaves should be allowed to rest on the Sabbath, so, perhaps, God also approves of slavery. I believe giving someone gainful employment is a good deed, but that argument, and almost all the other arguments in the book, were pretty flimsy.

Grudem takes the idea of human’s responsibility for the earth and makes in into total dominion, with no references to environmental stewardship. I’m not sure that a company making thousands of shirts is really making the earth that much richer. Some people need shirts, but there is such a thing as using too many resources.

Grudem’s arguments tend to be culturally chauvinistic; he argues that any society without a system of ownership is evil. This was intended as a knock against communism, which certainly has had its share of “evil” leaders and laws, but it does not take other societies without as system of ownership, such as many American Indian tribes, into consideration. They do not strike me as particularly evil.

The book was also repetitive, redundant, and I read the same things over and over again.

He says he is writing a book on business ethics. If the argumentation is better, I would be interested in seeing what he has to say.
Rating: 1 / 5

Harper says:

I’m a student at Princeton University. I am also a Christian (a practicing Roman Catholic). I was writing a paper on Business Ethics and the New Testament and my professor recommended I get The Gods of Business. Amazon.com recommendations said that customers who bought that book, also bought this book, so I bought it too. I’m sorry i do so.

This book is full of cliches and overly broad proverbs on life. For example: the author writes that when people ask how their lives can glorify God, they are rarely told, “Go into business.” Students, when they ask, “How can I serve God with my life,” don’t often hear the answer, “Go into business.” The book goes down hill from there. It feels like a young prof (a TA) reading off a mature and beloved professor’s syllabus and expecting the same reaction from the students. It just isn’t there.

My guess is that the author had somebody transcribe some talks he gave and had a ghost editor smooth the transitions and called the final product this book. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you have a perspective that Christian’s can’t be in business. Then this book might be of marginal value as a first read. A much better and far more comprehensive book on this subject, but one that Amazon doesn’t sell, Is Bob Hartley’s Marketplace Christianity.
Rating: 2 / 5

Adam S. Brooks says:

I have never really thought deeply on why I do business and what mindset I should have. Prior to this book, I just did and now I guess I try to look inside a bit more. I recommend it for Christians and non-Christians.
Rating: 4 / 5