Corporate spirit: religion and the rise of the modern corporation

217 Pages·2018·7.944 MB·English

by  Amanda Porterfield

Corporate Spirit

Corporate Spirit
Religion and the Rise of the
Modern Corporation
z
AMANDA PORTERFIELD
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Porterfield, Amanda, 1947– author.
Title: Corporate spirit : religion and the rise of
the modern corporation / Amanda Porterfield.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]
| Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017028645 (print) | LCCN 2017041144 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780199372669 (updf) | ISBN 9780199372676 (epub) |
ISBN 9780199372683 (online content) | ISBN 9780199372652 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Business—Religious aspects. | Capitalism—Religious aspects. |
Corporations—United States—History.
Classification: LCC HF5388 (ebook) | LCC HF5388 .P68 2018 (print) |
DDC 261.8/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028645
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
To Keith

Contents
Introduction  1
PART ONE: Corporate Organization in Roman Antiquity
and Medieval Europe 
1. Founding Visions: The Ancient Roots of Corporate Organization  7
2. “So Poignant a Memory of the Past”: Corporate Accountability
in Medieval Christendom  27
3. “We Need Not See the Church with the Eyes”: Corporate Presence
in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe  44
PART TWO: Corporate Organization in America 
4. “The Hearty Hand of Friendship”: New Men and Corporate
Enterprise in British America  69
5. Sanctifying Contracts and Persons: Corporate Organization
in America’s “Infant Republics”  93
6. “The Real Nature and Spirit of Our Lives”: The Evolution
of Corporate Personality, 1865– 1920  119
viii Contents
7. “The Very Heart and Soul and Spirit of Our National Will”:
Promoting the Corporate Dream, 1920– 1980  143
8. Between Faith and Delusion: Corporate Credit After 1980  166
Epilogue  191
Acknowledgments  197
Index  199
Introduction
How did tHe corporate organizations that play such an important role in
American society come to be? This book attempts to answer that question.
Corporate Spirit is not a study of corporate organization everywhere; it focuses
on the development of corporate institutions in the United States, and on the
earlier history of corporate organization out of which American institutions
emerged.
Though commercial and religious corporations operate separately under
American law, they share important similarities. Both have legal standing as
persons, protecting them from dissolution when individual members die or
retire, and shielding members from certain liabilities. Through credos, mis-
sion statements, and social practices, corporate organizations in both spheres
enlist cooperation, act purposefully to achieve collective goals, and construct
group identity. Commercial companies often build their reputations through
claims to ethical principles that serve customers and even benefit humanity.
Conversely, religious organizations have financial concerns that often involve
generating and distributing income and managing investments and debt to
further their corporate interests.
To achieve a better understanding of how corporations became building
blocks of American society, this book examines the kinship between churches
and commercial institutions, highlighting the importance of corporate orga-
nization for understanding wealth and expansion in both arenas. Religious
appeals to a supernatural world, combined with legal separation between
nonprofit and commercial organization, make this kinship easy to overlook.
Ironically, however, the separation of church and state in the United States
expedited the flow of ideas back and forth between business and religion, the
development of common strategies, and a multiplication of corporate charters
in both spheres. In a legal environment firmly rooted in contract law, with
states and the federal government detached from a single established church,