Abstract

Although we live in a globalized world, there has still been little interreligious dialogue about markets and morality in relation to human flourishing and even less so in connection with economic theory. The field of comparative study on the economic ethic of the world religions which Max Weber around 1905 initiated with his studies published as Die Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen, has not progressed much since the early twentieth century and is still fragmentary. This essay introduces the theme of this edited volume and explains in what way Weber’s questions are revisited in a new way. The sociological approach of Weber is complemented here by asking what moral insights each religion and worldview has to offer, both positively and critically, in dialogue with the market economy today.