This is a study of the relationship between capitalism and Christianity in 20th-century Britian. David Jeremy examines the collective biographies of three business elites in order to explore issues important to business and religion. How did the churches shape the thinking of future business leaders? What impact did Christianity have on big business? How has the participation of business people in religious life affected the major Protestant denominations? Dr Jeremy traces the development of business values in a formally Christian society. He shows how churchmen among business leaders related their faith to their business and the dilemmas this could entail, and he uncovers the varying parts played by business men from personal involvement in their local congregation to funding and organizing major dominations or an interdenominational venture like the 1954 Billy Graham Crusade to London. Using a wide range of sources, including newspapers and journals, unpublished records, and interviews, Dr Jeremy has produced an analysis of a relationship that could be both tense and fruitful.
His insights into the private faith and business ethics of leading entrepreneurs and businessmen are underpinned by intensive quantitative analysis.
This is a study of the relationship between capitalism and Christianity in 20th-century Britian. David Jeremy examines the collective biographies of three business elites in order to explore issues important to business and religion. How did the churches shape the thinking of future business leaders? What impact did Christianity have on big business? How has the participation of business people in religious life affected the major Protestant denominations? Dr Jeremy traces the development of business values in a formally Christian society. He shows how churchmen among business leaders related their faith to their business and the dilemmas this could entail, and he uncovers the varying parts played by business men from personal involvement in their local congregation to funding and organizing major dominations or an interdenominational venture like the 1954 Billy Graham Crusade to London. Using a wide range of sources, including newspapers and journals, unpublished records, and interviews, Dr Jeremy has produced an analysis of a relationship that could be both tense and fruitful.
His insights into the private faith and business ethics of leading entrepreneurs and businessmen are underpinned by intensive quantitative analysis.
Abbreviations; Introduction: Business leaders and churches: issues
and approaches; Part I. Contexts: Business structures, religious
structures and business elites 1900-1960; Part II. Formations:
Church views of business 1900-1960; Christian influence in the
formation of business values, skills, and networks in British
business elites 1900-1960; Part III. Advance or retreat? Christians
in big business prologue. The numbers involved; The industrial
sectors
preferred; Christians in big business leadership before 1914;
Christians in big business leadership between the wars; Churchmen
in big business leadership during the 1940s and 1950s; Part IV.
Mammon in the
Temple: commercial men in the churches; Prologue; Businessmen in
the church of England 1900-1960; The Methodist experience
1900-1960; Nonconformists and Celts 1900-1960; Interdenominational
scenes 1900-1960; Conclusion; Appendix: The hundred largest
companies in 1907, 1935, and 1955; Sources; Index
`This book stands on its own ... It is certainly a MAGNUM
ALPHA.'
Twentieth Century British History Vol 2 No 2
`Dr Jeremy has clearly marked out the questions we should ask and
how we might go about answering them.'
John Stevenson, Times Higher Education Supplement
`The author is uniquely qualified for this undertaking. It is a
major service to have provided a solid comparative basis from which
questions raised can be pursued.'
Gerald Studdert-Kennedy, Times Literary Supplement
`The book is meticulously researched and provides a scholarly and
highly readable survey of some major issues, with detailed case
studies ... David Jeremy offers an important study. It will be of
use, in its information and analysis as well as its references,
tables and bibliography, to the serious student of both church and
business history.'
Social History Society Newsletter
`a thorough and detergent empiricism, systematically generating and
ordering a massive body of evidence, while preserving professional
caution about its reliabilitiy and the weight of interpretation it
can carry.' Gerald Studdert-Kennedy, Times Literary Supplement
`Mr Jeremy provides an important source book for all Christians to
make common cause in the restoration of the social gospel.'
The Month
'Dr Jeremy has written a scholarly study of the relationship
between Christianity and business practice. His attention to fine
detail in the search for primary sources has been indefatigable and
there can be little doubt that his work will prove definitive.'
Maurice Kirby, University of Lancaster, Business History, Vol. 34,
No. 2, Jasn '92
'Here is the very finest in the way of detailed scholarship among
business - but more especially church-related - records,
biographies, and memoirs.'
Callum G. Brown, University of Strathclyde, Economic History
Review, Nov '91
'David Jeremy's book must have a special place in the large
literature on the relations of the churches to industrial society
in modern Britain, because it is based on massive original
quantitative research, meticulously reported. The book is far from
being wholly statistical. There is much detailed biographical
material. And there are some excellent treatments of key
episodes.'
Haddon Willmer, University of Leeds, History. Oct '92
'this substantial monograph confirms his reputation as the leading
British scholar in this particular field ... Jeremy himself has
done well and has shown himself to be a good and faithful servant
of his profession.'
Keith Robbins, St David's University College, Lampeter,
Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 43, No. 3, 1992
'Dr Jeremy here reveals his extensive knowledge of individuals and
of the context in which they worked. He has much of great interest
and perceptivity to say about their social attitudes, religious
convictions, denominational involvements, and industrial policies
... The scholarship of this large and important book is undoubtedly
impressive.'
G.E. Milburn, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, Volume
49, Part 1, February 1993
'... he has amassed a huge amount of detail about the religious
influences helping to shape the lives of big businessmen, Dr Jeremy
has quarried with superlative assiduity over many years to present
a great deal of quantified knowledge on how the churches influenced
leading businessmen,'
G.I.T. Machin University of Dundee EHR Shorter Notices April
'94
'David Jeremy provides an instructive case study... he is well
placed to do his topic justice... thorough study of
religious-minded leaders serving on denominational committees...
Jeremy has provided a lively and well-ordered work of academic
quality that deserves a wide readership.'
T. A. B. Corley, Business History Review, Vol. 68, Spring 1994
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