James W. Lucas

Co-author (with Warren Woodworth) of Working Toward Zion, the LDS-economics book Kyle reads as a practical blueprint for “what business done differently might actually look like” rather than as theology. Lucas and Woodworth set the United Order against Capitalism and socialism as a genuinely distinct organizing principle for economic life — not “capitalism with charity added on” — and present Consecration as a still-live, unfinished framework that the modern Church has yet to build the institutional infrastructure for (cooperative banks, the Mondragon model, Value Added Ventures). The book’s recurring argument that Kyle flags: “maximizing shareholder wealth” cannot be a terminal goal, and the binding constraint on consecration is finding “men who know what to do with it” — capable stewards, which is what business education at BYU should exist to produce.

Where this appears

• Working Toward Zion — author; the book is the sole source for this page, framing the United Order as a contemporary economic experiment built on consecration, stewardship, and employee ownership.