Business as a CallingWhy do we work so hard at our jobs, day after day? Why is a job well done important to us? We know there is more to a career than money and prestige, but what exactly do we mean by "fulfillment"? These are old but important questions. They belong with some newly discovered ones: Why are people in business more religious than the population as a whole? What do people of business know, and what do they do, that anchors their faith? In this ground-breaking and inspiring book, Michael Novak ties together these crucial questions by explaining the meaning of work as a vocation. Work should be more than just a job -- it should be a calling. This book explains an important part of our lives in a new way, and readers will instantly recognize themselves in its pages. A larger proportion than ever before of the world's Christians, Jews, and other peoples of faith are spending their working lives in business. Business is a profession worthy of a person's highest ideals and aspirations, fraught with moral possibilities both of great good and of great evil. Novak takes on agonizing problems, such as downsizing, the tradeoffs that must sometimes be faced between profits and human rights, and the pitfalls of philanthropy. He also examines the daily questions of how an honest day's work contributes to the good of many people, both close at hand and far away. Our work connects us with one another. It also makes possible the universal advance out of poverty, and it is an essential prerequisite of democracy and the institutions of civil society. This book is a spiritual feast, for everyone who wants to examine how to make a life through making a living. |
What people are saying - Write a review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - porch_reader - LibraryThingI read this book as background reading for a research project that I'm doing on how people discern their vocational calling and how they develop an identity as a called professional. For my research ... Read full review
BUSINESS AS A CALLING: Work and the Examined Life
User Review - KirkusA spirited defense of commerce as a worthy career and of democratic capitalism as the best socioeconomic system among known alternatives. Like John M. Hood (The Heroic Enterprise, page 504), Novak ... Read full review
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Bibliographic information
| Title | Business as a Calling |
| Author | Michael Novak |
| Publisher | Free Press, 1996 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | Sep 24, 2008 |
| ISBN | 0684827484, 9780684827483 |
| Length | 256 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Business Ethics Business & Economics / Careers / General Business & Economics / Motivational Philosophy / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |