A Force for Goodby Brian Engelland
I found this book while looking for something about Catholic principles in business for our economics course next year. Last year, First Son read half of Economics: The User's Guide by Ha-Joon Chang. He also read You Need a Budget by Jesse Mecham along with some other articles for personal finance. The two streams together were half an economics credit.
This coming year, he'll finish Economics: The User's Guide. I'm going to create a second stream to read that will focus on Catholic and moral aspects of economics. It's very much still in flux, but I imagine it will include some chapters of Small Is Still Beautiful, some essays from Wendell Berry, and possibly an encyclical. Force for Good is a good option I'm considering for Catholic business principles.
The book is a relatively easy read, providing introductions to Catholic teachings of natural law and Catholic Social Doctrine (or Catholic social teaching) and their relationship to policies and decisions in a business. The author draws on business articles, encyclicals, Scripture, and the Catechism. He also draws on his own experiences as a manager, owner, and university professor.
While not all of the business-related information is directly applicable to all students, thinking about these ideas is beneficial to everyone. We all buy products and choose which companies to support with our purchases. This is also an excellent book for any student considering a career in business or entrepreneurship.
I am a radical Catholic in terms of my economic ideas, so reading this book was sometimes difficult for me. I think Professor Engelland is much more idealistic in his beliefs about how easy it is to run a large successful business based on Catholic social teaching. He claims such practices are actually better for a company and allow it to flourish in the competitive market environment. I think the number of international and conglomerate companies that do not adhere to such principles belies his assertion, but such principles can be and should be the bedrock of Catholic businesses. I want to share these kinds of ideas (and ideals) with my students as we think about economics.
I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased this book used.
