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Theological Perspective on Entrepreneurship

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Abstract

Saghaug and Pattison unfold a theological understanding of the moment as revelatory in order to provide a richer understanding of the entrepreneur as a human being who, in seizing an opportunity, creates something new, as he or she balances between ethical and economic demands in pursuit of meaning. Herein former moments of passion seem to influence the current process with passion as love. Saghaug and Pattison include a philosophical/theological perspective from one of the most influential theologians in the last century, Paul Tillich, as well as his sources of inspiration: Heidegger and Kierkegaard. The authors further contribute with what this theological perspective could imply for future ways of addressing entrepreneurship by acknowledging the moment as the centre from which the very understanding and innovation of value begins.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In some narrative research, one finds that there is a so-called postmodern movement from the grand narratives to the small stories as mediating meaning in doing narrative research.

  2. 2.

    Kierkegaard’s “the eternal is the present” (Kierkegaard 1980, 36) seems to be important for Tillich’s idea of “the eternal now”.

  3. 3.

    Kierkegaard too acknowledges this, it should be said.

  4. 4.

    In Tillich’s Christology this concerns essential manhood conquering existential manhood in Jesus as The Christ.

  5. 5.

    As mentioned, a particularly important example of this was the German election of 1933, in the run-up to which Tillich wrote a book called “The Socialist Decision” (which was pulped by order of the Nazi election winners), urging his fellow citizens to see that this was a decisive kairos in which the whole meaning of being German was at stake.

  6. 6.

    See Tillich, “Systematic Theology III”, pp. 393–396. However, it is an idea he also discusses in many other places in his work.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Evangelical Lutheran Church, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Kristin Falck Saghaug

  2. Theology and Religious Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    George Pattison

Authors
  1. Kristin Falck Saghaug
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  2. George Pattison
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Correspondence to Kristin Falck Saghaug .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Romeo V. Turcan

  2. Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Norman M. Fraser

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Saghaug, K.F., Pattison, G. (2018). Theological Perspective on Entrepreneurship. In: Turcan, R., Fraser, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Entrepreneurship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91611-8_22

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