ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a concise guide to the world's major religions and their ethical doctrines. It describes the major tenets and ethics of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism. It discusses the religion's ethical attitudes to the main aspects of finance such as wealth, charity, debt, conduct of business, and economics. The chapter focuses on the teachings common to all the schools of Buddhism, particularly the ethical teachings. The moral precepts are given in the middle three elements of the Eightfold Path and more clearly repeated in the 10 non-virtuous actions, and in the virtues Buddha encouraged people to practise. Anathapindika was a contemporary of the Buddha and one of the major characters in Buddhism. His original name was Sudatta and he was a banker. In a discourse with Anathapindika, the Buddha mentions debt is to be avoided. The Buddhist teaching on work and employer/employee relations is rather modern considering the period in which it was written.
