My friend is writing a book on robot sex. He’s a professor of ethics, so that’s his day job. And jobs seem to be what it’s all about; widespread panic that the robots are going to put us all out of business.
I have just been reviewing an article on spirituality in management for a management journal. In many ways it was a useful contribution to the growing corpus in this field, but I was struck by the author’s easy commitment to the orthodoxy that spirituality naturally leads to ‘spiritual behaviour,’ which in turn can be measured in order to decide whether or not facilitating spirituality at work makes good sense. Read More
This week I am back at Douai Abbey finishing off my PhD. Today I am reading Philip Goodchild’s Theology of Money. In it he argues that money is more powerful than God. This is because money, through credit, naturally multiplies, endlessly and exponentially, in order to keep repaying the debts it incurs en route, like restless air seeking a vacuum. The implication is that God, or religion, is not programmed for growth in the same way. I like Goodchild’s use of money as a metaphor and his recognition that money is essentially an article of faith. However, he does not develop his argument far enough. Read More
Let’s face it, Jesus himself was no fan of regulation, continually clashing with the Pharisees over their legalism and replacing their red tape with the simple principle of love. And what got Luther cross, leading to the Protestant Reformation? His feeling that the brisk trade in Indulgences – religious securitisation – was evidence of the Church slipping back into something like this Pharisaic tradition: ‘justification by works’ when simple faith should suffice. What is terrifying about Luther, and about faith, is how risky it is. Read More
I am thinking about the Terry Pratchett quote from Thief of Time:
“They were not bad men. They had worked hard on behalf of the valley for hundreds of years. But it is possible, after a while, to develop certain dangerous habits of thought. One is that, while all important enterprises need careful organisation, it is the organisation that needs organising, rather than the enterprise.” Read More
