A short note on Martin Luther’s idea of business ethics

Abstract

Among the many works of Martin Luther, one deals with trade and usury. It appeared in 1524. Various aspects of it have stimulated interest and debates in theology, sociology, and economics. The work contains two sentences, which address business ethics in general. These appear to be contradictory. They refer to conscience on the one hand, and to worldly regulations of interest and pricing on the other hand. Luther relates these two views to his doctrine of a truly Christian kingdom versus a worldly kingdom. In the first kingdom, moral behavior based on Christian ethics prevails. This is not entirely true in the worldly kingdom. In this environment, authorities have to administer and to supervise rules to achieve behaviors of merchants, which should not diverge too much from the behavior in the first kingdom. Consequences of these ideas are discussed.

Keywords:

• Business ethics
• fair trade
• interest
• Luther
• Two kingdoms doctrine
• usury

Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to a referee and a specialist in protestant theology for their critical and helpful advice.

Notes

1. The original text has no page numberings. Therefore, the author has numbered the pages beginning with the first page of the text. In referring to the text, these page numbers are put in brackets.

2. The authoritative ‘Weimar edition’ of the works has 108 volumes, including the Bible translation, speeches, letters etc. This edition is the basis for the American edition.

3. Interestingly, this is still the law in Germany: § 598 Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (Civil Law)).