“BUSINESS AND RELIGION: The Intersection of Faith and Finance,” edited by, BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, $29.99, 407 pages (nf)
During two days in March 2018, the history department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints combined with BYU’s Department of Religious Education to host a symposium highlighting various aspects of the church’s economic history. “Business and Religion: The Intersection of Faith and Finance” is the compilation of speakers’ presentations. Complete with various black-and-white photographs, this book delves into details and aspects of church business and financial history.
“Business and Religion” begins with two stimulating chapters by Bishop Gérald Caussé, the presiding bishop, and Sharon Ann Murphy, a financial historian who specializes in the early American republic. While each author covers similar time frames, they do so in very different ways and with remarkable insights and historical stories.
Other 13 chapters cover a wide range of topics, yet each deliberately focus on how certain business and financial aspects of the history of the church were intertwined. Patricia Lemmon Spilsbury, a missionary serving at the Church History Library, teaches how women in early church history braided straw from home to help financially support their families. On the other end of the spectrum, Brian Q. Cannon, a BYU history professor, focuses on a brief moment in time, specifically between the years of 1917 and 1918. He points out that it was during this time, when 64 wealthy individuals paid large amounts of tithing, that the church was able to rise from near bankruptcy to financial stability.
Throughout this fascinating book other subjects such as the first income tax, the Pony Express and ZCMI, are covered in remarkable detail and fascinating historical insights. The focus of “Business and Religion” is a wonderful way to delve into history of the church by melding the spiritual with the financial.
This is a clean book with nothing offensive in it.
Editors Matthew C. Godfrey is a managing historian for Joseph Smith Papers project and Michael Hubbard MacKay is an associate professor of church history at BYU.
Elizabeth Reid thinks the Great Depression is fascinating, so she earned bachelor’s degrees in both economics and history. A wife and mother, she blogs at agoodreid.blogspo