IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/jecxxx/v15y2007i02ns0218495807000083.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour Is Holy But Business Is Dangerous: Enterprise Values From The Church Fathers To The Reformation

Author

Listed:
  • SARAH DRAKOPOULOU DODD

    (Athens Laboratory of Business Administration and Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University, UK)

  • GEORGE GOTSIS

    (Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens, Greece)

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the religious valuation of entrepreneurship during a long period of Western cultural history that covers transformations of religious thinking from the early Church Fathers to the Reformation. The paper focuses on theological contributions to conceptualizations of labour, property and wealth, that serves as a basis for assessing entrepreneurial motives and enterprise activities. In doing so, this approach highlights the interactions between work motivation and entrepreneurship in distinct cultural and historical contexts. Particular attention is devoted to understanding the religious sanctification of labour. The emergence and formation of secular enterprise values are discussed and interpreted as integral parts of these religious worldviews in which they were deeply embedded.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd & George Gotsis, 2007. "Labour Is Holy But Business Is Dangerous: Enterprise Values From The Church Fathers To The Reformation," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(02), pages 133-163.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:jecxxx:v:15:y:2007:i:02:n:s0218495807000083
    DOI: 10.1142/S0218495807000083
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218495807000083
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0218495807000083?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greif,Avner, 2006. "Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521480444, November.
    2. Douglass C. North, 2005. "Introduction to Understanding the Process of Economic Change," Introductory Chapters, in: Understanding the Process of Economic Change, Princeton University Press.
    3. Langholm,Odd, 1998. "The Legacy of Scholasticism in Economic Thought," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521621595, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Masahiko Aoki, 2013. "Institutions as cognitive media between strategic interactions and individual beliefs," Chapters, in: Comparative Institutional Analysis, chapter 17, pages 298-312, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Robert P. Gilles & Emiliya A. Lazarova & Pieter H. M. Ruys, 2007. "Stability, Specialization And Social Recognition," Division of Labor & Transaction Costs (DLTC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(02), pages 83-109.
    3. Maseland, Robbert, 2021. "Contingent determinants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. Gennady Bilych, 2013. "Democratic Changes and Economic Growth," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(1), pages 461-486, June.
    5. Torsten Heinrich & Henning Schwardt, 2013. "Institutional Inertia and Institutional Change in an Expanding Normal-Form Game," Games, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-28, August.
    6. Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2008. "Religion, politics, and development: Lessons from the lands of Islam," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-351, November.
    7. Lattanzio, Gabriele, 2022. "Beyond religion and culture: The economic consequences of the institutionalization of sharia law," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    8. Alvarez-Diaz, Marcos & Caballero Miguez, Gonzalo, 2008. "The quality of institutions: A genetic programming approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 161-169, January.
    9. ROUGIER Eric, 2015. ""The parts and the whole”: Unbundling and re-bundling institutional systems and their effect on economic development," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2015-12, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    10. Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2007. "Poverty traps: a perspective from development economics," Working Papers hal-04139210, HAL.
    11. Robbert Maseland, 2013. "Parasitical cultures? The cultural origins of institutions and development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 109-136, June.
    12. Fabien Eloire & Claire Lemercier & Veronica Aoki Santarosa, 2016. "What can we learn about the embeddedness of commercial relationships from the study of powers of attorney?," Working Papers hal-01358364, HAL.
    13. Stewart, James I., 2009. "Cooperation when N is large: Evidence from the mining camps of the American West," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 213-225, March.
    14. Carl Mildenberger, 2013. "The constitutional political economy of virtual worlds," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 239-264, September.
    15. Brian Snowdon, 2008. "Towards a Unified Theory of Economic Growth," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 9(2), pages 97-151, April.
    16. Frolov, Daniil, 2019. "The manifesto of post-institutionalism: institutional complexity research agenda," MPRA Paper 97662, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Ciarli, Tommaso & Savona, Maria, 2019. "Modelling the Evolution of Economic Structure and Climate Change: A Review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 51-64.
    18. Ansellia Adams & John M. Luiz, 2022. "Incomplete Institutional Change and the Persistence of Racial Inequality: The Contestation of Institutional Misalignment in South Africa," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 857-885, June.
    19. Kuran, Timur, 2009. "Explaining the economic trajectories of civilizations: The systemic approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 593-605, September.
    20. Fabien Eloire & Claire Lemercier & Veronica Aoki Santarosa, 2016. "What can we learn about the embeddedness of commercial relationships from the study of powers of attorney?," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01358364, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:jecxxx:v:15:y:2007:i:02:n:s0218495807000083. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/jec/jec.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.