Corporate Spirit Religion and the Rise of the Modern Corporation

Amanda Porterfield is Robert A. Spivey Professor of Religion at the Florida State University. She is the author of Healing in the History of Christianity and the co-editor of The Business Turn in American Religious History (with Darren Grem and John Corrigan).

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part One: Corporate Organization in Roman Antiquity and Medieval Europe

Chapter One
Founding Visions:
The Ancient Roots of Corporate Organization

Chapter Two
"So poignant a memory of the past":
Corporate Accountability in Medieval Christendom

Chapter Three
"We need not see the church with the eyes":
Corporate Presence in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Part Two: Corporate Organization in America

Chapter Four
"The hearty hand of friendship":
New Men and Corporate Enterprise in British America

Chapter Five
Sanctifying Contracts and Persons:
Corporate Expansion in America's "infant republics"

Chapter Six
"The real nature and Spirit of our lives":
The Evolution of Corporate Personality, 1865-1920

Chapter Seven
"The very heart and soul and spirit of our national will":
Promoting the Corporate Dream, 1920-1980

Chapter Eight
Between Faith and Delusion:
Corporate Credit after 1980

Epilogue