Divine Limitation or Enabler? Understanding How Religion Influences the Relationship Between Ethics and Creativity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21464192 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrea C Sottini (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Brett R Smith (0000-0003-1615-2095, Miami University, corresponding author), Benedetto L Cannatelli (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-24 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Business Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0167-4544 • E-ISSN: 1573-0697 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10551-026-06287-8 |
| OpenAlex | W7140218781 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 64 |
Although research on ethics and creativity has been fruitful, it has also yielded mixed results and two different perspectives, raising questions about whether ethics hinders or facilitates creativity. These two perspectives have been fueled by limited consistency in terms of theoretical specification and mechanisms. One potentially important but overlooked factor that may help shed light on this relationship is religion. Building on the theory of intimate co-creation, our study examines the dyadic relationship between individuals and God in the creative process. We conduct an inductive, qualitative study using 49 interviews of entrepreneurial monks and nuns across 25 monasteries in Italy to understand how religion influences the relationship between ethics and creativity. Our findings suggest an ethical process of relational moralization occurs between individuals and God through three stages: relational development, relational identity, and relational obedience. Rather than simply hindering or facilitating creativity, our study finds a more nuanced understanding where relational moralization acts as a double-edge sword that both limits the creative domain and enables creativity within the domain through relationally-bounded-creativity . Our study takes an important step in reconciling competing views of the relationship between ethics and creativity. Our findings have important theoretical implications for the ethics-creativity relationship, ethics and a constructive view of obedience, and intimate co-creation
Business ethics · Creativity · Quality of Life Research · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · Karl Barth and Christian Theology · Theology and Philosophy of Evil
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| Highly cited | No |
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