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I picked this book up as one of the serendipities that happen when I step into an unusual place with books.  Often I find treasures, or at least items of interest in my areas of investigation, in outlets, second-hand book stores, bargain tables at the main shops and discount book stores.  Many times the areas I investigate, often between the disciplines, are those that don't sell well, and they get left over and discounted.  Then I come along!

This book by Nash and McLennan was one of those "leftovers" bought up by one of those traveling book outlets.  On a trip on Interstate 35 in June 2009, I stopped at an outlet mall in Gainesville, Texas, on the Red River border with Oklahoma.  I found this book along with bagfuls (or bagsful, for you pedants out there) of other great volumes of unusual interest!

Business and Faith
This is an excellent discussion of research into the relation between personal and institutional faith and business in the United States.  The authors take a sociological approach, interviewing huge numbers of business people and clergy, about their attitudes, understandings and needs.

This was a sensitive, thorough, even rigorous, and scholarly investigation involving direct investigation and interview of a wide range of individuals.  The writeup is clear and moves along, unlike some other tomes you can pick up on religion in the marketplace.  No junk book, this, trying to catch a bit of populist money quickly.  This is a piece of real scholarship.

Sociology
Nash and McLennan probe how believers understand the relationship of their faith to their business calling and activities.  They research how various clergy see business and the business people in their congregations.  They investigate various working groups or other studies of the relationship of business to organized religion.  The analysis is analytical, insightful and sensitive.  The suggestions are very practical and catalytic.

Their investigations and analysis here are valuable as resources for Business, but likewise insights draw upon and are applicable to the disciplines of Sociology and practical Faith and Life.  Pastors, especially, and other religious "professionals" will benefit from the discoveries reported by these authors and by their useful suggestions.