In the West, modernity presents the religion, and particularly Christianity, as a private matter that should be excluded from public life. By extension, most companies, although private institutions generally also consider religion as something confined to the conscience of each person. However, in recent years something is changed.
On one hand, a right separation of church and state powers is maintained. This is to avoid both the manipulation of the Church by politicians and a clerical interference in the political management. But on the other hand, many accept the moral voice of the Church in the social sphere, while the rich humanistic tradition of the Church is recognized as a source of inspiration to develop ideas and models.
Actually, Christianity, and specifically Christian humanism, underlies Western civilization. As demonstrated, Rodney Stark, professor of social science at Baylor University (Texas) and specialist in the history of religion, the Enlightenment, to which modernity is associated, comes from a cultural background that was fueled largely by the Christianity. Meanwhile, Jürgen Habermas, one of the most renowned intellectuals today, has evolved from Marxist positions in which saw religion as an “alienating reality” to its current vision that recognizes the positive social role of religion and calls for dialogue with religious traditions.
From the business point of view, there are companies that are presented inspired by Christian values. In academia, in recent years, has started a deepening of what you can bring Christian humanism to the company (see, e.g., the recent book edited by D. Melé and M. Schlag, “Humanism in Economics and Business: Perspectives of the Catholic Social Tradition“, Springer, 2015, which includes companies inspired on Catholic-Christian principles).
In this lies el 4th International Colloquium on Christian Humanism in Economics and Business, to be held at IESE, Barcelona, the next 20 and 21 April, under the theme: Ethics and Christian spirituality in business management. Communications received reinforce the thesis that the Christian humanism is and can be a source of inspiration for the business address and business leadership.
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