(FORTUNE Magazine) – God and business? Did you ever expect to see those two words on the cover of this magazine? Me neither. At FORTUNE our articles of faith are limited to belief in free trade, unfettered competition, and the proposition that capitalism works best when companies stick to creating value for shareholders. Our normal beat: mammon.

So what's the deal with this cover? It started last year when Keith Ferrazzi, a Harvard MBA who'd shot to the top ranks of a major U.S. company, approached me about a project he was working on with the World Economic Forum (hosts of the global elephant bump in Davos, Switzerland). The topic was spirituality and leadership. Keith's pitch passed my man-bites-dog test: MBA searches for money, no story; MBA searches for meaning, story. But what intrigued me was the prospect that his was no isolated quest. It wasn't, as our Marc Gunther found out over months of intensive reporting. Says Marc: "I was amazed at the number of business people, especially baby-boomers, looking for a higher purpose in their lives, willing to talk about their faith publicly, and trying to integrate it into their work."

It's that last part that makes this a FORTUNE story. While Marc was a sympathetic listener--as a father, a 50-year-old, and a self-described "minimally observant Jew who has rediscovered his faith in recent years," he fits the profile of his piece--he's also a fair but tough reporter (check out his item on AT&T's cable woes in First). The result is an article that shows why this is a lot more than just another trend du jour. Instead, Marc has discovered something real that's affecting a surprising number of our readers, and he has presented it as what it is--a large, unorganized, deeply felt, and deeply personal movement. Now, for the latest on mammon, see the rest of the issue.