Economic ethics according to Luther: towards a dialogue between economics and theology

Over the last decades, Luther’s writings on economic matters have been re-evaluated widely and deeply. In this paper, I will survey three of the most important contributions—quite different ones, but I claim that all of them paint different dimensions of the same picture. In addition to the historical, practical, and methodological perspective, I suggest to pay attention to Luther’s own theological method, which would be part of a grammar of economic ethics “according to Luther”. Further aspects of this grammar would be Luther’s framework (e.g., church and state) and Luther’s agenda (e.g., law and gospel). I conclude that applying such a grammar in new economic situations is not only a reasonable approach for non-theologians, but that it might genuinely do justice to Luther’s thought.