Dr. David Miller, director of the Faith and Work Initiative at Princeton University, spoke on the influence of religion in leadership as part of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics Discussion Series in Knight Hall Tuesday.

Miller, who has a master’s in divinity and a Ph.D. in ethics, focused his lecture around his class at Princeton: “Business Ethics in Modern Religious Thought.”

“I want to give some samples of what someone means when they say, ‘Well, religion can help shape and inform my ethics or my style as a leader,’” Miller said. “Some perhaps [say there are] arguably some distinctions—that if we didn’t have religion, well what is so unique given anything about religion, that’s a bigger debate but I want to dip my toe into it…Religion is a powerful thing, it is definitely a private thing, but it has public ramifications.”

Miller addressed the intersections of religious traditions and the public arena, particularly in the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths.

“These traditions have resources that, with a slight cultural transposition, can be ways to be thinking about the marketplace,” Miller said. “Typically, not things you would be thinking about in a [business] school class, I grant you that, but the connections are there.”

Following Miller’s lecture, a panel, held by Bob Chapman, Dr. Ghazala Hayat and John C. Danforth, examined how faith and industry practice intersect.

Hayat, a professor of neurology at SLUCare, board member of the Interfaith Partnership/Faith Beyond Walls and spokesperson of the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, discussed applying concepts and values from her own or another religion in her profession.

“I come to work, and [I’m] doing a procedure. And if he’s struggling or starts bleeding or anything, a patient may be of different faith, and I pray in my heart that I want to do him better,” Hayat said. “When I enter into any procedure, I always pray…because I’m taking strength from them.”

Chapman, chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Incorporation, holistically believes that success shouldn’t be measured by money.

“An image came to me that we define success in this world very wrong—it’s all about money,” Chapman said. “We measure success all wrong. We should measure success by the way we touch the lives of people.”

Danforth, a former U.S. Senator and ordained Episcopal priest, shared how, in a similar vein, religion interacts with his political work.

“The way politics is practiced in the real world, if you’re really in it, is about winning,” Danforth said. “And religion is about losing. Religion is about sacrifice, not needing the whole world and using your soul. It is a very different message.”

Business students reflected on the broader message of the lecture that professional success is only defined by financial earnings.

“I think they could have gotten a broader range of religions in there, but I think it is a newer thing,” senior Allison Halpern, marketing student and associate at Bauer Leadership Center, said. “It’s interesting how they think about the goals, and how business students are kind of driven by goals, money and told to maximize profits. They talked about maximizing goodness and that that was a main point with religion.”