Description
In this issue …
We have a wealth of material on a fascinating range of topics.
Concern for the prisoner is a recurring biblical mandate. Christina Williams reports on an outstanding recent initiative, Clean Sheet, which is helping ex-offenders to reintegrate into society by matching them with companies willing to employ them.
‘Was Jesus really a carpenter?’ may sound like an odd question. But as Richard Noble shows, there is a strong cumulative case for thinking the Greek word usually translated carpenter actually means general builder. Richard makes imaginative links between his findings and his own varied workplace experience.
Rumours that the UK’s leading fair trade company Traidcraft was about to close have proved to be mistaken – but it has downsized significantly. Richard Higginson interviews Traidcraft’s chair and chief executive, Ram Gidoomal and Robin Roth, about what has happened and why. They share their views in a candid way.
Andrew Wadsworth takes on a well-rehearsed dilemma, Statutory Regulation versus Self-Regulation, and offers some perceptive observations drawing on a previous initiative in corporate self-regulation which promised more than it delivered.
We include another piece on an exciting emerging ‘faith and work’ organisation: Mo Trudel telling the story of Ministry at Work which is based in the Stoke-on-Trent area.
Phil Jump weighs in with ‘Taking Back Control?’, a typically thoughtful piece on Brexit, which sheds more light on this contentious area than most politicians or journalists have offered lately. And Peter Heslam brings a highly encouraging report on the latest Faith in Business event, which had a distinctive flavour of ‘retreat in order to advance’ and attracted many new and enthusiastic participants.
19:4 also contains a strong hand of reviews, three by members of the FiBQ Steering Group: Peter Warburton (our new Chair) on van Biljon and Sprouse’s Profit with a Higher Purpose; Carol Williams about Ken Costa’s meditations on the cross, Strange Kingdom; and Richard Higginson on Wood and McGibbon’s Purpose, Incorporated. In addition, we are pleased to welcome a new reviewer, Susan Jones, who offers a profound analysis of two books dealing with the interface of theology and economics, Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism and Aquinas and the Market.
The Editors
