ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses first on the Jewish tradition, moving subsequently to a consideration of early Christianity and then examining later developments including the thought of Aquinas, the Protestant Reformers, as well as more recent Catholic social teaching. While history has highlighted the many differences between Islam and the other Abrahamic faiths, when it comes to the question of ethics, and business ethics in particular, the similarities are striking. In the Eastern religions there is a greater emphasis on human potential and the ability to cultivate virtue and create virtuous cultures, including, one would assume, virtuous business cultures. The chapter also focuses on Islamic belief and business ethics, and takes up religious traditions of Asia. Secularism is also based upon the notion that globalization and religious belief are somehow incompatible, which is more an a priori assumption than an established fact.
