Description
In This Issue…
We are delighted to publish articles by two young entrepreneurs who attended the 2025 Faith in Business Retreat. Karina Immanuel manufactures luxury handbags and Eseabasi Ntefon makes plant-based candles. Both speak in a fresh and engaging way about their relationship with God and how his guidance directed the start-up and development of their companies. We wish them and their businesses well.
In a line of recent articles where FiBQ subscribers have reviewed their careers, Peter Curran reflects on a full and satisfying working life. He shows how ‘Four Worlds of Work’ (commercial, not-for-profit, voluntary and caring) have enabled him to harness his skills, help others, support his family and serve God, in different but interrelated ways.
We warmly acknowledge the contribution of two men in the ‘faith and business’ world who died recently. James Allcock was a larger-than-life figure who worked in the energy industry, culminating in a lengthy spell as Director of Gas Supplies at British Gas. Richard Higginson pays tribute to a special friend while David Parish and Cal Bailey explore James’ impact on their thinking, notably through an influential conference talk entitled ‘Christian Distinctives in Business’.
Richard Turnbull was Director of CEMC, the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics. In that role he wrote several notable essays, and we are grateful that his successor Philip Krinks has condensed one of them, ‘Recovering Moral Purpose in Capitalism’, for publication here. It is a timely topic and Richard’s paper draws helpfully on his historical research into the Quaker impact on business. CEMC is the publisher of Brian Griffiths’ book Inflation is about More than Money, which receives a positive review from Peter Warburton.
Brad Askew throws helpful light on a thorny but neglected question: should Christians ever take legal action against other Christians? He shows how the famous passage from 1 Corinthians 6 needs to be read in historical context and applied carefully. John Weaver reviews an unusual novel, On the Brink by Michael Cafferky, which addresses the issue of how Christians should or shouldn’t witness to their faith in a business setting.
Finally, we continue to explore Leadership, the current Faith in Business theme, in three different pieces. Annika Greco Thompson champions generosity as a key aspect of leadership, the hidden resource in wielding power God’s way. Richard Higginson finds much to commend in Dawn Stallwood’s near-comprehensive book Beautiful Leadership. Peter Heslam, in the second of his series, points to four teenage girls (past and present) who have exercised huge influence without holding formal positions of power.
The Editors
