The ethical and spiritual considerations of Matthew’s Beatitudes: Configuration of the human being in companies

Abstract

Most organisations consider human beings as a resource, a position that adopts a functionalist perspective and focuses on ways in which companies operate. The purpose of this study is to expose the type of human being that is configured in the light of the ethical–spiritual that can be deduced from the text of the Matthean Beatitudes. On reviewing the literature related to ‘organisations and spirituality’, several studies related to humanism, business, religion and spirituality were found. However, the absence of a study from the theological–biblical viewpoint in association with the business field was observed. A general conclusion deduced after using the hermeneutics of Matthew 5:3–10 is that from the Beatitudes, spiritual growth of individual and community is possible, thus enabling to understand the type of human resource that is required by companies today. Moreover, the unacceptable conviction or practice that human beings are considered as a resource or means, and not, as will be argued in the study, as beings recognised and treated as an end in themselves forms the basis of this study. This problem is critically addressed from the Christian ethical–spiritual approach that is constructed from the theological hermeneutics of the Matthean Beatitudes.

Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implication: The context from which the research is undertaken takes as vantage point the unacceptable conviction or practice that human beings are considered as a resource or a means, and not, as will be argued in the article, as beings recognised and treated as an end in themselves. The unacceptable contextual reality is critically addressed from both a Christian ethical–spiritual itinerary that is constructed from the theological hermeneutics of the Matthean beatitudes as well as in dialogue with the business reality, specifically business administration.