Events

Upcoming Event

FABI Speaker Series: How to Bring About Communion Through Business

October 28, 2026
10:00 AM - 11:15 AM PT
Surfboard Room | Payson Library

Most of us want a meaningful life. How can business provide a profit and income, while also providing a meaningful existence to us in an integrated way? We often fear that to succeed in business, we have to ‘sell our soul’ and not expect a spiritually enriching experience in business. But what if business — far from separating us from our desire for a meaningful life — can actually be a source of spiritual challenge and enrichment for us? What if business can actually help us find meaning in our lives by helping others, especially the poor, while we make a profit? That is what the Economy of Communion approach to business proposes as a very real possibility.

Pepperdine Libraries is pleased to partner with the Faith and Business Initiative to present a talk by Creighton University's Andrew Gustafson. He will explain his own experience in property rehab and rental, in which he provides grace and help to many through the day-to-day activities of his business, and also share some concrete examples from other entrepreneurs who are practicing business this way.

Gustafson is professor of business ethics and society at Creighton University's Heider College of Business, where he has taught for over 20 years. He also serves as director of the Society for Business Ethics (2022-2027) and as director of the Economy of Communion Project at Creighton funded by the John Templeton Foundation. He has more than 75 publications and has given hundreds of talks, mostly on business ethics and/or philosophy. He and his wife and two children live in downtown Omaha, Nebraska.