Overview

The modern corporation began its life as a religious institution - first as the nation of Israel and subsequently as the Christian Church. Long before its official recognition in law, the corporation had been an identifiable and unique form of human association. Its only essential characteristic is the voluntary and collective submission of individual interests to the interests of a Name, its own living Spirit. The corporation is thus ‘invited’ into existence as a presence independent of its members, and through which the Spirit provides both its unity and its continuity. In this fascinating, interdisciplinary text, Michael T. Black reveals how the modern corporation has become a parody of itself. It is a travesty of the opportunity it offers, namely the opportunity to engage in a continuous search for the good, the criteria of right action, in other words, the practical pursuit of the divine, in and through our daily lives with others. In a sweeping historical analysis, Black highlights how The Name has been obscenely turned into a Brand, which sells but does not inspire; how the plethora of manipulative management techniques and authoritarian corporate structures are merely ineffectual, compensatory attempts to create corporate unity in the absence of the Spirit. This is the spiritual spoilt. This work hopes to provide an alternative to the jargon-filled, self-justifying, and ultimately futile conceptions of the corporate institution which are used to justify its current spiritual aridity.

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9780567717092

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Reviews

This is a brilliant book. Few people would have the breadth and depth of scholarship to attempt such an ambitious project: we are lucky that Michael Black does, and that it is a tour de force. The book is a forensic examination of the ontology of the corporation, using theology to reveal what is hiding in plain sight: of course the corporation has a transcendent purpose, and it is only by rediscovering this essence that its modern incarnations can be restored to health. Tracing its origins from roots in covenantal theology to its civil emergence as the Fransiscan Res, Black patiently sets out the peculiar genius of this kind of model of collective being, such that its members through mutual service are loyal the whole. He explains that, despite the ploys of managerialism, the existence of a corporation can only ever be sustained through the 'performative communication' of the fine-grained behaviour that each member exhibits toward each other. His restoring of the corporation's backstory explains why good leaders have always leaned towards higher purpose, because in this view all corporate management must be spiritual in nature if it is to harness the power of this particular collective. * Eve Poole OBE, Author of 'The Church on Capitalism: Theology and the Market' *

Author Information

Michael T. Black was an illustrious businessman in the United States and United Kingdom before turning his attention to theology, ultimately becoming a Senior Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK

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