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The Role of Biblical Theology in Teaching a Christian Worldview on Business D ARIN W HITE Brock School of Business, Samford University N ATHAN K IRKPATRICK Nelson Rusche College of Business, Stephen F. Austin State University ABSTRACT: Christian business faculty have the opportunity to point their students to the source of all Truth, Jesus Christ. This paper demonstrates a need for Christian business faculty members to immerse themselves in the Word of God in order to better theologically understand the overarching story of the Gospel and how crucial biblical themes (which help formulate a Christian worldview) directly impact business curriculum, intentional teaching, and actual business students at Christian institutions of higher education. 65 White, Kirkpatrick — The role of biblical theology in teaching a Christian worldview in business I N T R O D U C T I O N Every business faculty member is a theologian. That might seem like a bold assertion, but it’s true. Whether con- scious of the fact or not, every faculty member brings a set of assumptions about this world and God to the table when wrestling with research questions and teaching students. These underlying theological assumptions shape our think- ing in subtle ways that oftentimes are hard to detect. In this paper, we will argue that, as business fac- ulty members that have committed to be followers of Jesus Christ, it is critically important that we take the time to deeply consider the theological assumptions that guide our thinking. We will seek to lay out a process that will assist Christian business faculty members to do something extremely practical, namely, thoroughly ground our stu- dents in a Christian worldview of business that is enduring and career defining. If we want our teaching to have a last- ing impact on our students, we as Christian business faculty members must first construct a sound theological founda- tion in our own minds. Importance of Biblical Theology “Sound” theology is faithful, accurate, reliable, and biblical (Dever, 2007). The Apostle Paul repeatedly instructs two of his young charges to “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). Sound theology is rooted in the Word of God being central in all our teach- ing and thinking. According to Matthew 28:18-20, the primary way we make disciples is by teaching sound theol- ogy (Duncan, 2009). In the end, sound theology is “how we move from the text of [S]cripture” to how we should make God-centered business decisions each and every day (Lawrence, 2010). Sound theology is built on five basic interdependent disciplines: exegesis, biblical theology, historical theology, systematic theology, and applied theology (Carson, 2015). As Christian business professors, we ultimately seek to answer the question of how business professionals should respond to God’s revelation in a business context (applied Figure 1: Hermeneutical Circle
66 CBAR Spring 2020 theology). But we run the significant risk of misinterpre- tation if we don’t first steep our minds in the other four disciplines. Before jumping to application, we should first work our way around the hermeneutical circle presented in Figure 1. As is highlighted in Table 1, sound doctrine starts with carefully reading the text (exegesis) to determine what it actually says and, most importantly, what the author meant by what is said. It then proceeds through biblical theology to historical theology and then systematic theology. While Table 1 summarizes each interdependent disciple, our paper will focus on biblical theology for three reasons. First, biblical theology, which is defined by Goldsworthy (1991) as a discipline of theology that emphasizes the progressive nature of biblical revelation, is a “kind of bridge-discipline between exegesis and systematic theology” that “enables them to hear each other” (Carson, 2015). While systematic theology is the “culminating discipline that attempts to form and transform one’s worldview,” biblical theology is “particularly important today because the [G]ospel is virtually incoherent unless people understand the Bible’s storyline” (Caron, 2015). Biblical theology corroborates what systematic theology assumes: “that the Scriptures are not an eclectic, chaotic, and seemingly contradictory collection of religious writing but rather a single story, a unified narrative that conveys a coherent and consistent message” (Lawrence, 2010). As Christian business profes- sors, we can utilize biblical theology to systematically com- prehend what the Bible teaches and apply it to professional settings and to do so within Scripture’s own progressively revealed storyline. Second, biblical readership is at an all-time low. For sev- eral decades, the percentage of Americans reading the Bible weekly hovered around 45%. But according to research by Barna, readership has declined consistently over the last decade, especially among the youngest adults. Today, less than 33% of all American adults report reading the Bible once a week or more, and among Millennials it’s only 24% (Barna, 2017). Third, basic biblical literacy among Generation Z, which includes 18- to 22-year-old college students, is sur- prisingly weak (Wrenn & Cafferky, 2015). George Guthrie (2011), the Benjamin W. Perry Professor of Bible at Union University and author of Read the Bible for Life , says that only half of students on his campus, a nationally prominent Christian university, can correctly answer basic biblical ques- tions in multiple choice format like “Which of these books is from the New Testament?” or “Whom did Pontius Pilate release during Jesus’ trial?” or “Where would you look in the Bible to find the Sermon on the Mount?” (Guthrie, 2011). Bible as a Metanarrative Biblical theology seeks to determine the “metanarrative” of Scripture and does so by tracking the story chronologi- cally—how a particular theme (like creation and new cre- ation or exile and return) develops and unfolds. It watches and examines “the big story and its progressive plotline and pays attention to how each book of the Bible contributes to it” (Hamilton, 2014). It notices themes along the way Table 1: Five Interdependent Theological Disciplines Discipline Exegesis Biblical Theology Historical Theology Systematic Theology Applied Theology Questions Answered What does this text actually say? What did the author mean by what was said? How has God revealed his word historically and organically? How have people in the past understood the Bible? How has Christian doctrine developed over time, especially in response to false teachings? What does the whole Bible teach about certain topics? What is true about God and the universe? How should humans respond to God’s revelation? Summary Carefully reading the text and asking thoughtful questions that drive the reader to listen attentively to what the Bible says. Biblical theology seeks to understand the theology of indi- vidual books or units of Scripture and then trace out themes as they develop across time within the canon. Historical theology seeks to understand the opinions in peri- ods earlier than our own. “Studying the history of interpreta- tion is one of the greatest helps in freeing us from unwitting slavery to our biases.” Systematic theology is concerned with how the entirety of Scripture logically coheres in systems of thought and includes headings such as ecclesiology, Christology, eschatol- ogy, etc. Applied theology practically applies the other four disciplines and addresses domains such as culture, ethics, marriage, fam- ily, money, politics, etc.
67 White, Kirkpatrick — The role of biblical theology in teaching a Christian worldview in business that are picked up by later authors (like the Garden of Eden or the beast). It notices “developing concepts, patterns of thought, and symbols or imagery that begin perhaps with some suggestive significance but are later filled with deeper significance” (Hamilton, 2014). Biblical theology assists the reader in seeing how the death and resurrection of Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David and makes sense of Jesus’ announcement that, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Importantly from the standpoint of this paper, biblical theology helps us understand how our salva- tion in Christ should impact our daily lives here and now. As N. T. Wright (2008) said in Surprised by Hope , “In so far as the event is interpreted, Easter has a very this-worldly, present-age meaning. Jesus is raised so he is the Messiah, and he is therefore the world’s true Lord. Jesus is raised so God’s new creation has begun and we, his followers, have a job to do . Jesus is raised so we must act as his heralds announcing his Lordship to the entire world, making his kingdom come on earth as in heaven.” T H R E A D S T O B E F O L L O W E D Biblical theology seeks to study core biblical themes across all or part of the biblical corpora. Scholars have identified roughly 20 themes that run from Genesis to Revelation and serve to tie the entire Bible together. Some of these include the glory of God, covenant, law, temple, exile, Kingdom of God, and the city of God. In the next section of the paper, we will provide a brief overview of a few of these core threads and then, in the following section of the paper, provide examples of how these themes inform our teaching of a Christian worldview of business. The Story of Creation The biblical storyline of the Bible, starting in Genesis, demonstrates that God has uniquely made humans to play a part in “God renewing all things unto himself” (Colossians 3:10). When you look at the Old Testament as a whole, it reflects on the traditional Jewish idea that God envisioned for his human image bearers, which is for them to rule over a unified heaven and earth (Genesis 1:26-28). In a very real sense, human beings were created to be “middle managers,” working with and for God in the spread and development of the Garden of Eden throughout the world. Jesus and the apostles drew heavily on the ideal purpose for humanity that is presented in the Old Testament as they laid out the role of “new humanity” for the future. According to Mackie and Collins (2019), Genesis 1 was an idea that was never realized. Importantly, Genesis 1 and 2 are not about a state of static perfection. In Jewish tradi- tion, the garden narrative presents a scenario that God and humans were working towards. It was the path that Adam and Eve were called to pursue that was never realized. It was to be accomplished in a certain way—by letting God define good and evil, which is based on selfless love (represented in the story by eating from the tree of life) rather than humans defining good and evil based on their inner selfish drive (represented in the story by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). The remainder of the biblical storyline, starting in Genesis 12 with the Abrahamic cov- enant, lays out God’s plan to restore this original plan (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21). It is presented in seed form in Genesis 3:15 and then grows as the story unfolds. According to Mackie and Collins (2019), Genesis 1 gives a portrait of what is supposed to happen, the ultimate idea of what God intended—“an ordered heaven and earth with humans as divine image rulers in a perpetual Sabbath ruling with God. Then Genesis 2 presents where it actually went and instead of perpetual Sabbath we see perpetual exile.” The perpetual exile continues all throughout the Old Testament as the Hebrew people prove over and over again that they don’t have the ability to be God’s agents of recon- ciliation in this world. The authors of the Old Testament, under the inspiration of God, thoroughly document how all humans continually, as Augustine writes in Confessions , pervert their own will by bending away from God. Only when Christ comes on the stage do we finally see a human being who is able to accomplish what God had intended for Adam and Eve and then Israel. And now, we as followers of Christ, with our renewed hearts of love, have the ability to more fully accomplish this original purpose. Tree of Life vs. Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the gar- den, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9). According to John Sailhamer (1992), the tree of life represented life as God intended, with the tree demonstrat- ing access to a perfect, right relationship with God in which human beings chose to live lovingly and blamelessly in his presence (Revelation 22:14, 19). On the contrary, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as God created the tree to be, represented the choice that humans have to define good
68 CBAR Spring 2020 and bad based on their own terms. In essence, in Genesis 1 and 2, God creates the world, creates man in his image, and then creates these two trees representative of two paths of living and two directional choices either towards God or away from him. The understanding of what God desired for human beings (co-laborers in the world who chose to allow God to define good and bad and then rule by his wisdom) in terms of life and harmony is sharply contrasted with what Adam and Eve chose (living by their own wisdom in which they redefine good and bad based on their own selfish desires) in Genesis 3 when they disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This important backdrop is at the core of the Gospel story because it dis- plays humankind’s rebellion against God and the need for an external, eternal rescue. It also provides the answer to why the world is filled with evil and death. If there had not been disobedience, sin, and death through Adam and Eve, then Jesus and his perfect life, death, and resurrection would not have been required to bring men and women back into a right relationship with God (Ephesians 2:13-22). Christian business professors must first understand how God intended things to be upon creation (revealed through his Word) and then how Adam and Eve (through their own disobedience) threw all of creation and order into a sinful state of death and separation from God (Genesis 3:24) in order to be able to present to students the beauty and wonder of Jesus and the rescue mission he undertook on behalf of creation (Revelation 21:5). When Christian business professors have the theological understanding and biblical backstory to the need of Jesus Christ and his rescue, then they themselves are well equipped to prepare business students and their Christian faith for a 21st-century market- place that is longing for, but inherently blind to, the good news that Jesus came to save and reconcile sinners to himself because of what humankind had done against God (Babyak, 2018; Brown, 2015). The Kingdom of God Once Christian business professors better understand how God created the world and humankind and what God had originally desired for his children, then this initial understanding serves as a helpful backdrop for understand- ing God’s Kingdom as a whole and how men and women fit into God’s larger plan. First, Christian business faculty (and every man and woman) need to understand that there is a larger story being told by God and weaved together, and this larger story is something that humankind cannot fully see, comprehend, or fathom. The Apostle Paul, writing to his faithful friend Timothy, illustrates this well when he wrote in 1 Timothy 6:13-16: I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testi- mony before Pontius Pilate made the good confes- sion, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time- he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. The Apostle Paul, through revelations from Jesus him- self (Acts 9:3-6; 2 Corinthians 12:1-6), wrote faithfully in the Bible of the Lordship of Jesus Christ; the reasons why Jesus came to live, die, and rise again from the dead on behalf of sinners; and the restoration that only Jesus pro- vides through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, through confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and a belief that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9), any man or woman can become a part of God’s family and Kingdom and live out their true role as not only image bearers but co-heirs in God’s larger story. The Apostle Paul continues to illustrate this idea when he wrote in Romans 14:17, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Christian business faculty have the incredible privi- lege, ability, and calling to proclaim these truths about the Kingdom of God where they live, work, and play (Pope, 2017). Specifically, for Christian business faculty at Christian institutions of higher education, they can have the direct privilege of grounding all their content, assign- ments, discussions, and teaching in God’s Word while pointing students back to the beauty of God’s Kingdom and what it is and how Jesus provides access to this eternal, joyful Kingdom through his life, death, and resurrection. In addition, when men and women put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, they also are changed by the blood of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit to desire more of what God’s Kingdom stands for and represents instead of what Satan or the world believes and values (1 Peter 1:2). This understanding of God’s Kingdom provides a framework for Christian business students who are training to enter the workplace and represent Jesus Christ in all they do, and specifically it helps these students see their important roles and place in God’s larger story as they are used by God to love and serve others and build the very kingdom they are a part of (Babyak, 2017; Grimes & Bennett, 2017; Windes, White, Harkema, Hamilton, & Samudio, 2017).
69 White, Kirkpatrick — The role of biblical theology in teaching a Christian worldview in business The Son of Man In the Bible, Jesus refers to himself most frequently as the “Son of Man,” a reference to the Old Testament proph- ecy in the book of Daniel (Daniel 7:13) and a title embraced by Jesus as the perfect human substitute who will occupy the empty throne of heaven, sit at the right hand of God, and come again to gather his people (Christians) for eternal life and joy everlasting (Matthew 16:27-28) (Collins & Mackie, 2019). The theological understanding of Jesus as the “Son of Man” directly connects to God’s story of creation, human- kind’s rebellion of God, yet God’s Kingdom continuing to move forward in that the only chance of rescue for mankind and creation is the Son of God, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 1:15). Jesus takes the place of mankind in that he takes all the sin and punishment of men and women throughout time upon himself, dies the death mankind deserved, then proves his power as the Son of God by conquering death and rising from the grave to give Christians new life (1 Corinthians 15:55-56). Consequently, Jesus as the “Son of Man” is the new and perfect Adam, changing the course of human history, restoring relationship between believing men and women and God, and taking on the role of human substitute in God’s presence so that when God sees Christians’ lives and hearts, He sees Jesus’s righteousness and spotless record (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Christian business faculty, especially those at Christian institutions of higher education who can speak freely and boldly about the Gospel, must point students to Jesus Christ not only as Savior from sin and death (which he absolutely is) but also as perfect substitute, mediator, and Lord (Hebrews 12:2). Put another way, so often evangelicals in general believe that Jesus Christ is primarily a person to try to emulate or be like or to just become more similar to so that everything in their lives can be better. This is not the primary essence of the Gospel. Yes, Jesus Christ is absolutely the heart and focus of all the Scriptures, and yes, Jesus Christ absolutely teaches and provides wise paths of obedience for Christians to follow. But, Jesus Christ is not primarily an exemplar or measuring stick for Christians. Jesus Christ is first and foremost Christians’ substitute, only hope, Savior, Lord, and mediator to a holy and righteous God (Hebrews 8:6, 9:15, and 12:24). This is good news, and these truths about the “Son of Man” are what the Gospel of Jesus Christ truly is about. In light of these wonderful, joyous truths about the “Son of Man,” Jesus Christ, Christian business faculty have the opportunity to teach their students (with the focus on spiritual and academic growth) that all of their lives fall under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and are sacred to God as part of his larger story because of what Jesus has done for them (Black, Smith, & Keels, 2014; McMahone, 2014). These same students can hear from Christian business facul- ty who have been theologically informed that because of the “Son of Man,” Jesus Christ, they have the opportunity to be at peace with their creator God, and represent Jesus Christ in the business world and throughout their lives (through a biblical worldview and lens) as salt and light for God’s Kingdom (Cassell & Merkel, 2018; Liang, 2018). When students hear these Gospel truths as the Holy Spirit works in their hearts, classroom environments morph from just content delivery stations to worshipful, biblical destinations where students see, hear, and taste the integration of the good news of Jesus Christ with their occupational pursuits, career paths, and deep desires, both personally and profes- sionally (Dulaney, Bates, Berg, Forbes, Gunn, Koontz, & Thomas, 2015; Esqueda, 2014; Herrity, 2015, Tibbetts & Leeper, 2016). Restoration and Glorification As God graciously works in the hearts of Christian busi- ness faculty to theologically understand the biblical history of creation and the fall (Genesis 1-3), the Kingdom of God as the larger story pointing to Jesus’ rescue, and the work of Jesus as the substitutionary “Son of Man,” then these same faculty will in turn be better prepared to teach and proclaim the wonder of the restoration and glorification to come in Jesus Christ for Christian believers (Acts 7:56; Revelation 14:14). This specific, Gospel-centered wonder is rooted first in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross when he atoned for the sins of mankind and took mankind’s punishment before a holy and righteous God upon himself (Hebrews 12:2). When Jesus uttered the words “It is Finished” on the cross (John 19:30), he accomplished atonement of sins for all mankind and at that moment in human history, brought upon restoration for all sinners who put their hope and trust in him as their Savior and Lord (Romans 10:9). Jesus restored relationship between believing Christians and their heavenly Father, and this restoration accom- plished by Jesus’ righteous life and substitutionary death meant that now mankind could once again be co-heirs of God’s Kingdom and serve as ambassadors for God and his Son, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 2:16). Business faculty who are Christians are redeemed, restored men and women who have been changed by the gracious work of Jesus Christ, and these same men and women have the opportunity to talk with their students intentionally about the restoration that Jesus has brought about in their lives. This intentional conversation with students is not only transformational for students in terms of their hearts,
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