The Corporation and the Church: Institutional Conflict and Social Responsibility

For case studies, see Sethi S. Prakash , Up Against the Corporate Wall: Modern Corporations and Social Issues of the Seventies (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1971).

According to a recent estimate, seven major Protestant denominations own more than $155 million worth of stock in fifteen of the largest U.S. corporations. Grapevine (New York: Joint Strategy and Action Committee, Inc., 1971).

Cox Harvey G. , “The ‘New Breed’ in American Churches: Sources of Social Activism in American Religion,” Daedalus (Winter 1967), pp. 135–149.

Chamberlain Neil W. , Enterprise and Environment: The Firm in Time and Place (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1968), pp. 104–105.

Marty Martin E. , Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America (New York: Dial Press, 1971), as quoted in Newsweek (January 4, 1971), p. 40.

Ibid.

Mead Margaret , “Introduction,” in Christians in a Technological Era, White Hugh C. Jr. , ed. (New York: Seaburg Press, 1964), p. 17.

Cox , op. cit., p. 2.

McClellan Graydon E. , “The Ministry,” in New Frontiers of Christianity, Raughley Ralph C. Jr. , ed. (New York: Association Press, 1962), p. 130.

Marty Martin E. , Second Chance for American Protestants (New York: Harper & Bros., 1963), p. 65. The quotations cited in footnotes 8, 9, and 10 were taken from Callahan Daniel , “The Quest for Social Relevance,” Daedalus (Winter 1967), pp. 154–155.

Sethi , op. cit., pp. 324–339.

Marty , op. cit., p. 136.

Cox , op. cit., p. 138.

It might be argued that, since Martin Luther King spearheaded the civil rights marches, the Church was indeed in the forefront of this movement. However, I believe that Dr. King's participation was due more to the ethnocentric value of the issue than to his role as a professional reformer.

Interview with Reverend Robert Terry at the Detroit Industrial Mission, December 14, 1970.

For further elaboration on these points, see Sethi S. Prakash Votaw Dow , “Do We Need a New Corporate Response to a Changing Social Environment?” pt. II, California Management Review (Fall, 1969), pp. 17–31.