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Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism
Reviewed by Yours Truly
Well, I must say this book has been the hardest book for me to read through for a LONG time. Maybe it's because it was originally written in German and then Translated; maybe the editor screwed it up for this 3rd edition, maybe Max Weber was just lacking in the organizational department of writing, or maybe it was just me, but for being only 126 pages long it was HARD. But, however, I do think it was worth the time and effort.
"A glance at the occupational statistics for any country in which several religions coexist is revealing. They indicate that people who own capital, employers, more highly educated skilled workers, and more highly trained technical or business personnel in modern companies tend to be, with striking frequency, overwhelmingly Protestant." This is what Weber's book attempts to explain, and while I think he made a few mistakes here and there (and some of them quite awful), I think he's pretty close to the truth.
The first two or three chapters are spent giving the reasons behind the above quotation as well as Weber explaining other possible explanations (i.e. Protestants are capitalistic because of their historical possession of wealth) and why they aren't acceptable.
Weber makes a distinction between the Protestant Spirit of Capitalism and the capitalism of our age that has very few (if any) ethical bonds that are not directly enforced by civil law. He also differentiates it from simply making a living using capitalism, as the S.o.C. does not consist of merely working hard enough to live comfortably. Instead he shows how the Spirit of Capitalism is based in the concept of divine calling, which is what he considered to be the most influential achievement of the Reformation. By going through and comparing the beliefs of Protestants vs. Catholics concerning work & he explains just -why- the Catholics didn't have the S.o.C. He makes the case that Luther was the one to introduce (or in my opinion, reintroduce) the belief that every day work has moral attributes and a religious value. While Luther failed in that he viewed striving for gain as an abomination showing one's lack of faith (thus why Lutherans don't have a very strong S.o.C.), Weber expounded on the subject showing how the Protestant churches later rejected this idea of Luther's, particularly those sects following after a certain John Calvin.
And this is where one of my differences comes up. While Weber apparently admired the capitalistic spirit of Calvinists, he had very little else to say about them that was complementary. He believed them to be people who were only concerned with their own salvation due to the doctrine of predestination who then formed a church that encouraged members to look inwardly only and rejected any sort of religious mysteries (i.e. he wrote that they took communion only because God required it, not believing that it was a means of any sort of grace) etc etc. In this I think he failed miserably, especially with his view that Calvinists were not interested in trying to evangelize their neighbors. While he insists that the Spirit of Capitalism is only spread through religious beliefs; that Calvinists are the staunchest participants of the Spirit of Capitalism and that they were primarily responsible for the growth of it, Weber states that they didn't evangelize. What gives!
But while I greatly disagree with him on this, along with some of his other observations concerning Calvinists, he really does make a lot of good points throughout the book. He goes through the primary Protestant sects (Calvinists, Pietists, Methodists, and then "the sects that grew out of the baptizing movement (the Baptists, Mennonites, and Quakers)" ) and explains why or why not they were particularly successful at the S.o.C. all of which was quite interesting.
And what is this Spirit of Capitalism you ask? I guess it's about time I get to that... according to Weber from what I can deduce, the Spirit of Capitalism is the belief that drives a person to be productive and ethically so in their calling (even if it is not directly religious of nature) because they have been convicted of it being the will of God for them to do so. And as I will add myself (as I fail to see Weber mentioning it), a means to give glory to Him.
-AMH |
| | Posted 6/12/2006 5:50 PM - 2 comments
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