Description
In this issue we honour the life of Michael Hodson, who was Chair of the FiBQ Steering Group from 2012-18, and died suddenly and unexpectedly in Holy Week from a heart condition made manifest in the hardening of his arteries. Michael was a faithful servant of FiBQ, bringing to his role qualities of insight and enthusiasm, providing encouraging support for the editors but always being ready with constructive proposals. He was passionate about the importance of making business decisions in a carefully considered way, and this is evident in the piece we are publishing here, Intentionality, Intuition and Entrepreneurship. His widow Sheila has kindly allowed us to use a chapter from an unfinished book that he will sadly now be unable to finish.
Mark Lovatt supplements his article in 18:3 about the theology underlying corruption with a more personal account of how God has sustained him in the struggle against this insidious practice during his nine years working in Malaysia. It is another in a succession of powerful testimonies we have published in recent issues. Christoph Stückelberger from Switzerland contributes a more analytical study of the qualities of the typical Christian entrepreneur, showing both the overlaps and the differences with entrepreneurs in general. Phil Jump and Peter Heslam offer characteristically topical pieces, one about the shortage of water and the other on the Gig economy. Peter Warburton and Ken Dickson review and commend two fascinating books which may be in danger of passing FiBQ readers by: Nassim Taleb’s Skin in the Game and Alison Jones’ This Book Means Business.
FiBQ has regularly published reports of the annual Faith in Business conference, and so we include Richard Higginson’s report on Legacy: Passing the Business Baton, the final conference he will organise, along with Seeking the Welfare of the City, the sermon he preached at the conference’s concluding Eucharist. Faith in Business is moving on to a new phase which coincides with Richard’s retirement from his role at Ridley Hall this summer: we urge you to read carefully the updated information about Faith in Business which you will find opposite, on the inside of the cover. We emphasise that Richard will continue in his role as one of FiBQ’s editors. His commitment to commissioning and publishing good quality material on the connection between faith and business remains undiminished.
The Editors
