Nice work, Dan. I have not been able to follow the whole series as I would have liked due to being pretty busy but it is good to know it is always here for browsing.

I did have the idea of clipping the whole lot and putting it in a document I could print off - I take in printed matter ten times better than what’s on the screen.

I don’t know how many others might be interested in downloading printable hard copy of the series. Maybe a PDF of the lot? But then, that reduces the need to visit your fine blog, which would be a shame.

Seymour,

Any input you have on the series is appreciated, especially since it was in the UK that many of these ideas started. I know my section on The Industrial Church Revolution would have been greatly aided in its historicity by someone who has a greater feel for the fallout as it happened in Britain.

Thanks for the kind words about the series. I hope it gets Christians thinking about whether or not our cultural systems are truly Christian and what a Christian work reality might actually look like. Too few people are asking these questions.

Dan,

Please add a link to this archive in the “Best of Cerulean Sanctum”: preferably not in, but alongside the “Best Posts of 2003-2004″ link!

Dan,
Still waiting to hear back from you concerning the Christian business groupblog opportunity. You expressed interest and I emailed ya, but never heard back. Are you still interested?
She goes live Sept. 1, 2005. If you get a minute, go see her home at marketplacemandate.com.
In case you are curious, the contributors are:
- Me (Colin Rowley)
- Tim Challies (challies.com)
- Aron Gahagan (gahagan.com)
- Jeremy Harrison (businessreform.com)
- Stephen Young (new blogger)
- Tim Campaign (new blogger)

Looking forward to hearing from you. Loved your series on Christian business!

In Him,
Colin Rowley

Ooops… my email is cnlrowley@gmail.com.

Colin

Dan,
Also, I might have a writing opportunity that would fit you quite well. I manage much of the online content over at businessreform.com and we are looking for online columnists willing to write a column per week for the site. In addition, your column will also be posted on BizNetDaily (a subsidiary of WorldNetDaily).

Shoot me an email if you’re interested (cnlrowley@gmail.com).

Colin

[...] There's nothing inherently wrong with the Protestant work ethic that arose from the Reformation's freeing of workers to know that their work honors God. Where it goes astray is when it is removed from local economies and translated into the typical "drive downtown to the office" kind of work we grew used to working during the Industrial Revolution. If you've read my series on "The Christian & the Business World", you've got the basis for understanding the depths of the problem. (Read the series–you won't read anything like it anywhere else in the Godblogosphere.) [...]

[...] I was stumbling around looking for an article on the Web and found this courageous piece in Chronicles Magazine entitled America's Descent Into the Third World. Paul Craig Roberts dismantles recently created jobs and finds that the upbeat economic news we hear of late resembles the Emperor's latest threads. This article is must-read for those of you who read through my series on the business world. [...]

[...] I've blogged about this many times before, most recently in part in my business series, but it bears repeating. I own a large farm tractor. I bought it when we moved to our property with the idea of having a small farm. All my neighbors own farm tractors, too, in various sizes, capabilities, and vintages. There are five families that live on about sixty acres of land. We all have need for a tractor, but do each of us have to have one that is strictly ours? [...]

[...] Now that the business series is over, I'll be the first to admit that a few things got left out. I should've talked more about the loss of rites of passage within the Church after the economy shifted from agricultural to industrial. I also did not go into detail about how individual Christians can further their careers by playing the business world's game while not being destroyed by it. I'll admit that as the series went on, my conclusions there became more grave and I felt I needed to back off, so this omission on that one issue was intentional. There are several Christian Web sites out there with those talking points, but honestly, they seem to me to be mouthing the same old same old that has not made one dent in a real Christian presence at the heart of business. Like I said in the series: you can gold plate a 1975 AMC Pacer and it's still a lousy car. [...]

[...] The gist of this little book explores a little-known tribe living in the United States: Political conservatives, usually Evangelical Christians, who are dropping out of the rat race by going back to traditional ways of life that existed in pre-Industrial-Revolution America. Anyone who's caught my epic The Christian & the Business World series is well-acquainted with my views on the dire need for Christians to rise up and question our lifestyles, the non-stop, community-destroying, materialistic live-for-today zeitgeist we've adopted indiscriminantly. [...]

[...] Church abetted that little death by failing to question this so-called march of progress. Instead, American Christians marshalled the parade of efficiency and championed late-19th and early-20th cent… [...]