Sister Laura Baritz, affectionally known as ‘Sister Pepsi’, is a Dominican nun who left a leading position with global food and beverages company PepsiCo to embrace religion.
She now teaches the Christian Social Principles in Economics (KETEG) course which she co-founded at Corvinus University of Budapest in Hungary. The course uses the Church’s Social Teaching (CST) principles to inject a “more logical, more human-centred and more viable” approach to economics, according to Sister Laura.
Sister Laura explains that Christian Social Teaching envisions an economic order built on moral principles, human dignity, cooperation, solidarity, subsidiarity, justice and the common good—where profit serves as a means to create value rather than the ultimate goal.
“This way of thinking attracted me, giving more meaning to economics than I had before,” she tells QS Insights Magazine.
Teachings from the Convent
Sister Laura’s course exemplifies the growing trend of integrating spirituality into business education. A 2024 study published in the Journal of Business Ethics by Soledad Moya, a senior lecturer at Spain’s ESADE, and Nuria Toledano, an Associate Professor at University of Huelva also in Spain, reviewed literature from 1996 to 2023 to explore how religion and spirituality have been integrated into business, management and entrepreneurship (BME) education.
Analysing 51 articles, they found that incorporating religious and spiritual wisdom can enrich discussions in BME courses, especially in the context of business ethics. Similarly, religious teachings can emphasise principles such as integrity, responsibility and compassion, helping to shape more socially responsible leaders.
While the consideration of religion and spirituality in BME education has become part of educational practices in some universities and business schools, the researchers note that as a field of research, it is still at an emerging stage.
“For some,” write the researchers, “there is no doubt that religion and spirituality have a space in a more humanistic BME formation. For others, however, this issue remains controversial, especially in multi-faith environments in which BME education is provided, such as most public universities in the West”.
The researchers attribute this scepticism to institutional and ideological barriers – business education often prioritises rationality and profit maximisation at the expense of religious principles.
For Sister Laura, however, these barriers are simply challenges to overcome. She views her course as a way to offer students a broader and more meaningful approach to economics—one that aligns with the deeper moral dimensions of human behaviour.
“The principles we teach on courses can be acceptable for atheists or non-believers because they speak of the social, economic, political life of the human community that is more sustainable than the one today,” says Sister Laura.
In her teaching, Sister Laura offers students a grounding in theology to help them better understand the spiritual side of economics. She discusses values, virtues, ethical issues and moral principles, often debating the meaning and notion of ‘good’, and philosophical ideas. Her aim is to teach CST-based economics on a human level, integrating the spiritual principles into business education that are relevant to all students, whether they are religious or non-religious.
Speaking about religious principles implicitly is one way to overcome scepticism, Sister Laura reveals. She finds profit is a good tool to speak about economics in relation to CST. “For example, cooperation brings more fruit than dog-eat-dog competition,” she says.
Philosophy, too, is often referenced in the KETEG course. “Sometimes philosophical groundings precede theological ones and give preliminary impulse to theology,” she reveals, naming Aristotle as a non-religious philosopher whose beliefs helped to ground religious principles.
In some occasions, however, ‘God’ and ‘Christ’ must be talked about. “On these occasions, I begin with ‘According to the Christian teaching’ showing that I do not expect it from the audience that they must think the same way,” Sister Laura explains.
The KETEG course has been well received by the students at Corvinus University. According to Sister Laura, students have been open and engaged, asking logical and profound questions. “The level of ethics brings them rather to a common understanding, but to speak about moral theology is interesting to them too,” she notes.
“I read and hear that there is a renewal of spirituality in economics, not only Catholic, but many other religions as well,” says Sister Laura. “CST has an upward tendency as many CST economists are listened to in the public and are influential people.”
