8/13/2019 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism -
Book Review
1/2
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism book
review
Imagine your religious leader convinced you that, to be saved,
you must devote
yourself neither to good deeds nor to spiritual disciplines, but
to your professional
career and to gaining as much money as possible. The only
restriction is keeping
your expenses at the minimum level to survive. What do you think
would happen
if more than half of your countrys population began to live by
this creed?
ccording to !ax Weber, capitalism would emerge.
"ack in #$%&'#$%(, in his most renowned and controversial
book ) The *rotestant
+thic and the pirit of -apitalism ) the founder of modern
sociology argued that
uthers /eformation initiated a series of *rotestant and moral
beliefs that
developed Western capitalism to become 0the most fateful force
in our modern
life1, much more sophisticated than its 2riental forms. 3efining
capitalism as 0the
pursuit of 456 forever renewed profit, by means of continuous,
rational,
capitalistic enterprise1, he also linked the rise of capitalism
to the uni7ue
organi8ation of free labor that took place in the 2ccident.
The author wrote on the spirit of capitalism as an ethic,
meaning that the
development of the maximum profit behavior in modern days was
not due to
thirst for power and wealth, but to a moral shift in society9
people began to
believe that to accumulate wealth is the right thing to do.
-onsidering the strong
connection between religion and individuals ethical conduct,
shouldnt this mean
that some mystical or religious forces must have driven this
moral shift? ince, in
the !iddle ges, -atholicism didnt provide such a profit'friendly
ethics, the
*rotestant /eformation could be the cause.
:rom a statistical survey conducted in a ;erman district, Weber
ority *rotestants. et his conclusions remained sound, as he
>udiciously
identified the key elements of protestant rhetoric from which
the spirit of
capitalism derived9 uthers doctrine and biblical translation of
the calling of ;od
to salvation as the ;erman noun "eruf
