If Harvard Business School were a religion, it could be Mormonism

This too sits at the core of the LDS Church. We don’t pay professionals, in the form of clergy, to teach us. We teach one another, and we do it by the case method — though the scriptures label them as “parables” instead of cases. We discuss Christ’s “cases” at church, teaching one another how to follow Christ more completely. I remember, for example, when a man who worked the night shift at UPS masterfully orchestrated a case study in our church about forgiveness — around the Bible’s story about the Prodigal Son.

A reason why so many discussions among the erudite disparage religion, while some religious people are wary of answers from science, is that we have the categories wrong.  Many assume that science and academics belong in one category of knowledge, while religion comprises another category, primarily of belief. Further, religions often are sub-segmented into Catholics vs. Protestants, and Traditional vs. Evangelical Christians. Some in the latter group even categorize deeply Christian Mormons as “non-Christians.” These categorizations generate far more heat than light.

The Making of a Mormon Leader

Speaking of faith

Dave Ulrich

Romney doesn’t speak enough about one of the most formative influences on his leadership: his faith.

Man on a mission: Mitt Romney in France

Steve Evans

France is not a natural place to try and find converts to Mormonism.

How the Mormon church teaches priesthood holders to lead

Matthew Bowman

Among the church’s most famous lay priests is one of our candidates for president, Mormon and one-time bishop Mitt Romney.

If Harvard were a religion

Clayton M. Christensen

Leadership values that underpin the Mormon faith are the same ones taught at Harvard Business School.

• Speaking of faith when talking leadership
• From priest to profit
• Man on a mission: Romney in France
• PHOTOS | Mormon leaders beyond Mitt Romney

A much more productive framing is that there is the pursuit of truth on the one hand, and the propagation of error on the other. If there are conflicting assertions in science and in religion, then one or the other is wrong — or both are wrong, or both are incomplete.

But truth cannot be inconsistent with truth. As long as we are seeking truth, we are on solid ground. The pursuit of truth has no intellectual or spiritual prejudice.

This is the most important reason why we find that how we learned at HBS, and how we learn in our church about the kinds of leaders that God wants us to become, are mutually reinforcing. And, incidentally, you don’t need to be admitted to either in order to learn this lesson.

Christensen is the Kim B. Clark professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School and author of, most recently, How Will You Measure Your Life?

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