In his seminal work, The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber outlines the predication of capitalism on the evolution of Protestant values. Weber proposes that it is Protestantism as an “elective affinity” that has allowed for the manifestation of religious values co-constituted with capitalist values. Additionally, the abstemious moral pursuits of the Protestant work ethic infuses itself into all avenues of Western European nation states, rationality, and bureaucracy. The author continues further and delineates Calvinism, a specific branch of Protestantism, as the life-giver of this work ethic due to its Predestinarian theological doctrine. Through the epistemological configuration of religious fidelity and labor, a staunchly individualist ethic corrals around the determination of capitalism. In Weber’s understanding, the very nature of Protestantism transformed basic culture understandings of life value and loyalty. Through the individualist asceticism of this particular Christian ideology, the worker no longer needed to derive his religious value from family or home community. Interestingly enough, due to the doctrine of sola fide, the worker could also lay aside his worries of confirming his faith through religious work- in Protestantism, faith alone was sufficient for the elect.
The key to Weber’s analysis of the Protestant work ethic lies in the doctrine of Predestination. This teaching states that everything in a person’s life has been foreordained by God. In an impassable determinism, a select group of people have been “elected” for salvation. For Protestants, the ability to work diligently and accumulate capital in a method advantageous to the channels of capitalism is verifiable proof of one’s elective privilege. Therefore, the Protestant capitalist is an example of God’s venerated elect on earth. In this way, religious value and economic virtue are inextricably linked for the European Protestant. This, for Weber, is the prime breeding ground for the definite “spirit” found in capitalism.
Yes, this is a very nice synopsis. I wonder if these concepts could be added to your concepts post as well, so that we can collect all of them in one place for future reference. Great job on these posts!
Dr. Manning,
Will do!
I think you did well in highlighting how Weber emphasizes the use of Predestination in how he explains the Calvinistic faith. From Weber’s analysis, he believed that Calvinism allowed for individuals to break with their past to create a capitalistic approach to the economy. It took Calvinism and the idea that a really powerful and important reward to help break the cultural norms to create capitalism. Additionally, we see that electoral affinity and the convergence of values also helped with the development of capitalism in European states and culture.