Max Weber and the Protestant Ethic

For fear of posting an entire paper  my blog (which seems so counterintuitive), I have condensed a longer summary and some critical thoughts on Max Weber.

His thesis in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism—essentially that the anxiety caused by the uncertainty of one’s salvation within Calvinism prompted believers to prove their election through restless, systematic, unemotional, continuous works in the world, which works provided the perfect climate for capitalism to flourish—is a foundational one for many of the texts we read this week.

Essentially, for Weber, the spirit of capitalism is that spirit which selflessly, unemotionally, systematically, and continually labors for labor’s sake, which is naturally followed by an accumulation of wealth.  That wealth, however, is not the aim; and greed, for Weber is opposite of the true spirit of capitalism.

This idea, of course, seems to run counter to the traditional Catholic ideas of wealth and worldly pursuits as necessary evils—having money is only acceptable in as far as it helps one survive, and no more.  Out of this idea grew monasticism.

Martin Luther, however, disliked this reclusive lifestyle, and saw it as selfish and forsaking of one’s duty.  He thus proposed another alternative: the virtuous labor in one’s earthly calling.  The position one inhabits in life—the industry that one may produce there—was, for Luther, one’s calling; laboring within it allowed an individual to glorify God, while proving useful to society.

Though Luther’s ideas were certainly vital, Lutheranism lacked the ability to prompt its followers to do good works within a calling in the same way as Calvinism did.  Calvinism’s doctrine of predestination held that some of its followers were destined for heaven and some to hell—unequivocally, and irrevocably.  This, naturally, made followers anxious, and constantly in a state of uncertainty regarding their salvation.  To remedy this uncertainty, then, working—doing good works in the world—became a vital way to prove one’s chosen status before God.  For, God allows his chosen people to prosper; and, how could one prosper if one did not do work?

Calvinists, then, were sent into the world systematically, restlessly, unemotionally, and urgently, to produce, to work, and to prosper.  And prosper they did. 

Hence, capitalism is born.

Problems I have with Weber: First, he is unashamedly Western-centric, acknowledging that other nations/civilizations certainly invented, discovered, and produced, while simultaneously suggesting that the West perfected these inventions of the Other. 

This Western-centrism becomes a problem for Weber’s study when one considers the narrowness of his definition of capitalism.  Certainly, when one explores a capitalism with decidedly Protestant characteristics, as Weber has, one will find the origins of that capitalism within Protestantism.

However, despite Weber’ s shortcomings, his contribution to religious, economic, and literary studies (among others) are many, and the thread of his ideas runs through many groundbreaking texts.