Notes on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max WeberPublished 1904. Revised 1920.

Notes by Harley Richardson, April 2014, taken from Routledge Classics 2006 reprint.

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTIONWeber muses on the rational techniques available in the West (courtesy in some cases Ancient Greece) which promote significant progress eg rational proof in maths, the experimental method, systematic political thought, harmony and notation in music, rational architecture, organised officialdom. Capitalism is no exception.

p xxxii

'...a capitalistic economic action is one which rests on the expectation of profit by the utilisation of opportunities for exchange, that is on (formally) peaceful chances of profit.'

'...the action is adapted to a systematic utilisation of goods or personal services as means of acquisition in such a way that, at the close of a business period, the balance of the enterprise in money assets (or in the case of a continuous enterprise, the periodically estimated money value of assets) exceeds the capital, i.e. the estimated value of the material means of production used for acquisition in exchange.'

'The important fact is always that a calculation of capital in terms of money is made, whether by modern book-keeping methods or in any other way, however primitive or crude. Everything is done in terms of balances: at the beginning of the enterprise an initial balance, before every individual decision a calculation to ascertain its probable profitableness, and at the end a final balance to ascertain how much profit has been made.'

p xxxiii

Trade has always existed but 'consisted essentially in a series of individual undertakings' which only gradually achieved cohesion.

p xxxiv

However the modern Occident has developed something unique: 'the rational capitalistic organisation of (formally) free labour'…

p xxxv

'...attuned to a regular market, and neither to political nor irrationally speculative opportunities for profit...'

Not possible without two other factors:

The separation of business from the household The development of rational bookkeeping

p xxxvi

'Exact calculation - the basis of everything else - is only possible on the basis of free labour.' Likewise rational socialism.

p xxxvii

'...the technical utilisation of scientific knowledge, so important for the living conditions of the mass of people, was certainly encouraged by economic considerations...' deriving from the social structure of the Occident. But which parts of the social structure?

p xxxviii to end

Weber discusses the limitations of the scope of his study.

PART I: The problem

Ch 1: RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONNote 1 p132

'We are concerned with what, from a religious point of view, are often quite superficial and unrefined aspects of religious life, but which, precisely because they were superficial and unrefined, have often influenced outward behaviour most profoundly.'

p1

Occupational statistics of countries with mixed religious composition frequently show that 'business leaders and owners of capital, as well as the higher grades of skilled labour, and even more the higher technically and commercially trains personnel of modern enterprises, are overwhelmingly Protestant.'

This is seen wherever capitalism 'has had a free hand to alter the social distribution of the population in accordance with its needs, and to determine its occupational structure. The more freedom it has had, the more clearly is the effect shown.'

p2

This might be explained by historical economic conditions, since participation in the above requires capital and an (expensive) education mostly gained via inherited wealth.

'...the Reformation meant not the elimination of the Church's control over everyday life, but rather the substitution of a new form of control for the previous one.'

This, 'penetrating to all departments of private and public life, was infinitely burdensome and earnestly enforced.'

p3

In 16th C Geneva and Scotland and then large parts of the Netherlands, in New England and in England itself the reformers complained of 'not too much supervision of life on the part of the Church, but too little.'

How did the bourgeois classes, not known for their heroism, develop 'a heroism in its defence’? ("the last of our heroisms" - Carlyle)

Due to differences in material wealth?

The percentage of Catholics in higher education is proportionally low.

p6

'Catholics prefer the sort of training which the humanist Gymnasium affords.'

Skilled labourers tend to come from the handicrafts but 'the Catholics show a stronger propensity to remain in their crafts, that is they more often become master craftsmen, whereas the Protestants are attracted to a larger extent into the factories in order to fill the upper ranks of skilled labour and administrative positions.'

This is counter to the usual tendency for minorities to be forced into the trades by being excluded from office.

p7

A superficial explanation would be the greater otherworldliness of the Catholics.

p8

'The Protestant prefers to eat well, the Catholic to sleep undisturbed.'

But in the past the opposite was often true.

p9

'...the supposed conflict between other-worldliness, asceticism, and ecclesiastical piety on the one side, and participation in capitalistic acquisition on the other, might actually turn out to be an intimate relationship.'

A surprising number of the most spiritual Christians have spring from commerce, eg Pietism. Some saw this as a reaction to day-to-day mammonism. Or against their upbringings.

p10

But it's more pronounced in some forms of Protestantism than others, particularly Calvinism. Also Quakerism, Mennonism and Pietism.

p11

'...the spirit of hard work, of progress, or whatever else it may be called, the awakening of which one is inclined to ascribe to Protestantism, must not be understood, as there is a tendency to do, as joy of living nor in any other sense as connected with the Enlightenment.'

Ch 2: THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISMp14-16

A lengthy Benjamin Franklin quote provides a provisional description of the spirit of capitalism, which could be boiled down into aphorisms such as:

Time is money Money can begat more money The good paymaster is lord of another man's purse Look after the pennies...

p17

'...the idea of a duty of the individual toward the increase of his capital, which is assumed as an end in itself.' It is an ethos, not mere business acuteness.

This ethos was lacking in other examples of capitalism.

Franklin's attitude may appear to be simple utilitarianism…

p18

...but he ascribed it to a divine revelation. The ethos lacks eudaimonistic and hedonistic elements.

'...from the point of view of the happiness of, or utility to, the single individual, it appears entirely transcendental and absolutely irrational.'

p19

Why pursue money? Franklin quotes the Bible: "Seest though a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings."

'The capitalistic economy of the present day is an immense cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable order of things in which he must live. It forces the individual, in so far as he is involved in the system of market relationships, to conform to capitalistic rules of action. The manufacturer who in the long run acts counter to these norms, will just as inevitably be eliminated from the economic scene as the worker who cannot or will not adapt himself to them will be thrown into the streets without a job.'

p20

This is a form of natural selection but for it to be successful, 'it had to originate somewhere, and not just in isolated individuals alone, but as a way of life common to whole groups of men.'

In response to 'naive historical materialism' - the spirit of capitalism was present before the capitalistic order.

p21

Unscrupulousness in money making is characteristics of countries which are backwards in terms of capitalism. Capitalism cannot use undisciplined workers or unscrupulous businessmen.

p23

Ethical hostility and indifference to money making 'was one of the strongest inner obstacles which the adaptation of men to the conditions of an ordered bourgeois-capitalistic economy had encountered everywhere.'

The most important obstacle was traditionalism. eg Piece-rates should lead to increased output but often lead to less not more output because…

p24

'The opportunity of earning more was less attractive than that of working less.' Men do not 'by nature' wish to earn more money.

The reverse experiment (lowering wages to raise output) has been tried but has its limits.

p25

'Low wages are by no means identical with cheap labour. From a purely quantitative point of view the efficiency of labour decreases with a wage which is physiologically insufficient, which may in the long run even mean a survival of the unfit.'

'Low wages fail even from a purely business point of view wherever it is a question of producing goods which require any sort of skilled labour, or the use of expensive machinery which is easily damaged, or in general wherever any great amount of sharp attention or of initiative is required.'

'For not only is a developed sense of responsibility absolutely indispensable, but in general also an attitude which, at least during working hours, is freed from continual calculation of how the customary wage may be earned with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of effort.'

Today recruiting a workforce is easy, in the past not so.

p26

German girls are usually unwilling to change their work habits, taught to them by their mothers - unless they are Pietist.

p27

Sombart's principles of economic history:

satisfaction of needs acquisition

p28

The capitalist spirit and traditionalism can happily coexist.

p29-32

Weber sketches the transition from traditional capitalism to the spirit of capitalism in a typical community.

p32

Nowadays those filled with the spirit of capitalism are hostile to religion. The stated motivation is now: "to provide for my children and grandchildren."

Ch 3: LUTHER'S CONCEPTION OF THE CALLINGp39

Catholic and ancient classical civilisations do not have an equivalent of 'calling' (in the sense of a life task).

p40

The meaning comes from Bible translations, in the spirit of the translator, not that of the original.

Note 3 p158

'All the languages which were fundamentally influenced by the Protestant Bible translations have the word, all of which this was not true (like the Romance languages) do not, or at least not in its modern meaning.'

p40

One thing was entirely new: 'the valuations of the fulfilment of duty in worldly affairs as the highest form which the moral activity of the individual could assume.'

Luther developed the concept during his first decade as a reformer. Initially his thinking was in line with the prevailing Thomism - activity in life was a thing of the flesh, morally neutral.

p41

The development and logical consequences of sola fide [justification by faith alone] and the reaction against the monastic life as selfish led to: 'labour in a calling appears… as the outward expression of brotherly love.' Division of labour forces every individual to work for others.

Later this justification is replaced by: 'the fulfilment of worldly duties is under all circumstances the only way to live acceptably to God. It alone is the will of God, and hence every legitimate calling has exactly the same worth in the sight of God.'

p42

Reformation religions were hostile to capitalism in the forms of usury, individual capital accumulation, etc.

But 'the moral emphasis on and the religious sanction of, organised worldly labour in a calling was mightily increased.' The way the concept of the calling developed depended on the branch of Protestantism.

p44

'As [Luther] became increasingly involved in the affairs of the world, he came to value work in the world more highly.'

'...it later became that of a more and more intense belief in divine providence, which identified absolute obedience to God's will, with absolute acceptance of things as they are.'

'His acceptance of purity of doctrine as the one infallible criterion of the Church... was in itself sufficient to check the development of new points of view in ethical matters.'

Thus his view of the calling remained traditional.

p45

His view was a step backwards from the mystics and 'partly undermined the psychological foundations for a rational ethics.'

p46

The Reformation was unthinkable without Luther but owed its permanent concrete success to Calvinism.

p48

The religious reformers were not interested in programmes of ethical reform. 'The salvation of the soul and that alone was the centre of their life and work.' The consequences were unseen and even unwished for.

PART II: The practical Ethics of the Ascetic Branches of Protestantism

Ch 4: THE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS OF WORLDY ASCETICISM p53

The four main branches of ascetic Protestantism:

1. Calvinism 2. Pietism 3. Methodism 4. Baptist sects

p54

A brief sketch of the development of the above and their relations to each other and Lutherism.

p55

Dogmatic differences nevertheless resulted in shared ethical maxims. We need to look at the original dogmas to see traces left behind in modern practice. Weber is interested in the influence of those psychological sanctions which gave a direction to practical effort and held the individual to it. Men were concerned with abstract ideas to a large extent – we need to understand how this relates to practical thinking.

p56

A. CALVINISMInterested in the 'influence on other historical processes as a causal factor.' On this ground predestination is a highly important part of Calvinism. It led to an irrevocable schism between James I and the Puritans. Seen as the element of 'political danger' and attacked by those in authority. 17th C synods had it as their central purpose.

p59

Two routes to predestination:

1. Subjective human experience. Grace - seen as entirely resulting from an 'objective power' and not anything to do with people’s 'cooperation', even for Luther.

2. Logical thought arising from the idea that God is the only one who is free, ie subject to no laws. How could God's free decrees be subject to human influence?

Leads to feeling of 'unprecedented inner loneliness'.

Note p177

The biblical foundation is the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. People from Augustine onwards have tried to reconcile it with free will.

p61

Elimination of the sacraments formed the main difference w Catholicism. A logical conclusion of Hebrew and Hellenistic attempts to eradicate magic.

p62

For Puritans, sensuous experience promotes illusions about salvation.

Exclusive trust in God. Puritan warnings against trust in the aid of men. 'Only God should be your confidant.'

Disappearance of confession. Both a symptom and 'a psychological stimulus to the development of their ethical attitude. The means to a periodical discharge of the emotional sense of sin was done away with.'

Note p180

It’s a fundamentally anti-authoritarian doctrine, which undermined church and state leading (paradoxically) to proscription.

p63

All expressed clearly in The Pilgrim's Progress: Bunyan was a strict Calvinist.

p64

How does superior social organisation follow from individualism? Dogmatically: the world is for the glory of God only. Christians serve this to the best of their ability.

Note p181

Calvinists thought God also created the order of society and must have willed things to be objectively purposeful as a means of adding to his glory. 'The active energies of the elect, liberated by the doctrine of predestination, thus flowed into the struggle to rationalise the world.'

Note p182

Comparison of English attitude to statesmen with German equivalent post 1878. '...the sinfulness of the belief in authority, which is only permissive in the form of an impersonal authority, the Scriptures...'

p64

'the wonderfully purposeful organisation and arrangement of the cosmos is, according both to the revelation of the Bible and to natural intuition, evidently designed by God to serve the utility of the human race. This makes labour in the service of impersonal social usefulness appear to promote the glory of God and hence to be willed by Him.'

p66

Predestination was impossible for many to follow strictly.

Note p 183

'the duty to live one's neighbour is satisfied by fulfilling God's commandments to increase His glory. The neighbour thereby receives all that is due him, and anything further is God's affair. Humanity in relation to one's neighbour has, so to speak, died out.'

Note 36 p184

Was predestination limited to theologians? No, in 1840s Kohler found it rife amongst the masses (ie the petit bourgeois of Holland). Cromwell and his army knew about it. In Catholicism it did remain an esoteric theology.

Does it lead necessarily to fatalism? No, for eg Melanchthon and Wesley 'it is combined with an emotional religion of faith.'

Islam believed in predetermination not predestination, fate in this world not beyond. No religious sanction for rationalisation of life.

Note 38 p186

'The question of certitudo salutis [the assurance of grace] itself has, however, for every non-sacramental religion of salvation.. been absolutely fundamental;'

p66

Practical pastoral work met the problems thrown up by predestination in two connected ways:

1. 'it is held to be an absolute duty to consider oneself chosen and to combat all doubts as temptations of the devil, since lack of self-confidence is the result of insufficient faith, hence of imperfect grace.' Leads to 'self-confident saints'.

2. Intense worldly activity recommended as best way of achieving self-confidence.

p67

Lutherans aimed at unio mystica [the union of the human soul with God]…

p68

...which it combines with 'the sin-stained unworthiness which is essential to preserve the poenitentia quotidiana... thereby maintaining the humility and simplicity indispensable for the forgiveness of sins.'

For the reformed church, unity with God was impossible due to his transcendality: 'The community of the elect with their God could only take place and be perceptible to them in that God worked (operatur) through them and that they were conscious of it. That is, their action originated from the faith caused by God's grace, and this faith in turn justified itself by the quality of that action.'

So the underlying differences are: 'The religious believer can make himself sure of his state of grace either in that he feels himself to be the vessel of the Holy Spirit or the tool of the divine will.'

p69

Good works 'are the technical means, not of purchasing salvation, but of getting rid of the fear of damnation. In this sense they are occasionally referred to as directly necessary for salvation or the possessio salutis is made conditional on them.'

'In practice this means that God helps those who help themselves. Thus the Calvinist, as it is sometimes put, himself creates his own salvation, or, as would be more correct, the conviction of it.'

p70

Lutherans criticised this line of thought, with good reason as applied to everyday life of an average Christian.

A normal Catholic lived ethically but 'his good works did not necessarily form a connected, or at least not a rationalised, system of life, but rather remained a succession of individual acts.' They could be used to better his chance of salvation. '...the Catholic ethic was an ethic of intentions. But the concrete intention of the single act determined its value.' The Church recognised that moral life was subject to contradictions. '...it required as an ideal a change of life in principle. But it weakened just this requirement (for the average) by one of its most important means of power and education; the sacrament of absolution...'

The priest 'dispensed atonement, hope of grace, certainty of forgiveness, and thereby granted release from that tremendous tension to which the Calvinist was doomed by an inexorable fate, admitting of no mitigation.'

Note 66 p192

'Fatalism is, of course, the only logical consequence of predestination. But on account of the idea of proof the psychological result was precisely the opposite.'

The content of ideas is more important than people recognise.

'If the God of the Puritans has influenced history as hardly another before or since, it is principally due to the attributes which the power of thought has given him.'

Note 66 P193

'But that irrational element, which is by no means peculiar to religious experience, but applies (in different sense and to different degrees) to every experience, does not prevent its being of the greatest practical importance, of what particular type the system of ideas is that captures and moulds the immediate experience of religion in its own way. For from this source develop, in times of great influence of the Church on life and of strong interest in dogmatic considerations within it, most of those differences between the various religions in their ethical consequences which are of such great practical importance. How unbelievably intense, measured by present standards, the dogmatic interests even of the layman were... We can find a parallel to-day only in the at bottom equally superstitious belief of the modern proletariat in what can be accomplished and proved by science.'

Note 68 p194

'...the normal practice of the Church, directly on account of its most effective means of discipline, the confession, promoted the unsystematic way of life discussed in the text...'

p71

'The God of Calvinism demanded of his believers not single good works, but a life of good works combined into a unified system. There was no place for the very human Catholic cycle of sin, repentance, atonement, release, followed by renewed sin. Nor was there any balance of merit for a life as a whole which could be adjusted by temporal punishments or the Churches' means of grace.'

'The moral conduct of the average man was thus deprived of its plan less and unsystematic character and subjected to a consistent method for conduct as a whole.'

Note 73 p 195

For Puritan preachers 'every single sin would destroy everything which might have been accumulated in the way of merit by good works in a lifetime, if, which is unthinkable, man were alone able to accomplish anything which God should necessarily recognise as meritorious, or even could live in perfection for any length of time.'

p72

'Only a life guided by constant thought could achieve conquest over the state of nature. Descartes's cogito ergo sum was taken over by the contemporary Puritans with this ethical reinterpretation.'

Rationalism had become a feature of Catholicism since the Middle Ages eg in the rules of St Benedict 'it has become emancipated from plan less otherworldliness and irrational self-torture. It had

developed a systematic method of rational conduct with the purpose of overcoming the status naturae, to free man from the power of irrational impulses and his dependence on the world and on nature. It attempted to subject man to the supremacy of a purposeful will, to bring his actions under constant self-control with a careful consideration of their ethical consequences.'

Note 79 p196

'...the Reformation took rational Christian asceticism and its methodical habits out of the monasteries and placed them in the service of active life in the world.'

Note 81 p196

'The ascetic principle of self-control also made Puritanism one of the fathers of modern military discipline.' Eg as seen in Cromwell's strategies.

p73

'The Puritan, like every rational type of asceticism, tried to enable a man to maintain and act upon his constant motives, especially those, which it taught him itself, against the emotions. In this formal psychological sense of the term it tried to make him into a personality. Contrary to many popular ideas, the end of this asceticism was to be able to lead an alert, intelligent life: the most urgent task the destruction of spontaneous, impulsive enjoyment, the most important means was to bring order into the conduct of its adherents.' This is true of both monasticism and Calvinism.

p74

But for Catholics, 'asceticism, the more strongly it gripped an individual, simply served to drive him farther away from everyday life, because the holiest task was to surpass all worldly morality.'

Sebastian Franck saw that after the Reformation 'every Christian had to be a monk all his life... those passionately spiritual natures which had formerly supplied the highest type of monk were now forced to pursue their ascetic ideals within mundane occupations.'

Calvinism added something positive: 'the idea of the necessity of proving one's faith in worldly activity. Therein it gave the broader groups of religiously inclined people a positive incentive to asceticism.’

p75

Sympathy for one's neighbour based on knowledge of one's own weakness was replaced by hatred and contempt for him 'as an enemy of God bearing the signs of eternal damnation.' Led to the formation of sects, driven by conviction that the damned should not be allowed into the Church.

p76

Calvinists saw the Old Testament as an unattainable ideal, whereas Luther had 'prized freedom from subjugation to the law as a divine privilege of the believer.' But they picked the parts that suited them and ignored the emotional aspects eg the Song of Songs.

p78

Predestination 'prevented a premature collapse into a purely utilitarian doctrine of good works in this world which would never have been capable of motivating such tremendous sacrifices for non-rational ideal ends.'

The idea of proof is fundamental and provides a 'recurring framework for the connection between faith and conduct in the denominations to be studied below.'

Note 104 p201

'...the magical interpretation of the sacraments, combined with the lack of this doctrine [predestination], especially the association of the regeneratio, or at least its beginning with baptism, necessarily assuming as it did the universality of grace, hindered the development of methodical morality. For it weakened the contrast between the state of nature and the state of grace, especially when combined with the strong Lutheran emphasis on original sin. No less important was the entirely forensic interpretation of the act of justification which assumed that God's decrees might be changed through the influence of particular acts of repentance of the converted sinner. And that was just the element to which Melanchthon gave increasing emphasis. The whole development of his doctrine which gave increasing weight to repentance, was intimately connected with his profession of the freedom of the will. That was what primarily determined the unmethodical character of Lutheran conduct.' [Key paragraph]

p79

'...Lutherism, on account of its doctrine of grace, lacked a psychological sanction of systematic conduct to compel the methodical rationalisation of life.'

p80

Predestination was only one way of providing this but it had a unique and powerful psychological effect. Other forms are 'an attenuation of the inner consistency and power of Calvinism.'

B. PIETISMPredestination was also the historical starting point of Pietism although it's impossible to draw a line between Pietistic and non-Pietistic Calvinists. The doctrine of proof can be seen as a Pietistic development.

Note 110 p205

'Predestination made it fundamentally impossible for the State really to promote religion by intolerance. It could not thereby save a single soul. Only the idea of the glory of God gave the Church occasion to claim its help in the suppression of heresy.'

p81

An emphasis on praxis pietatis [practical piety] pushed doctrinal orthodoxy into the background Theological knowledge was not seen as a guarantee of faith.

It distrusted the Church of the theologians (ie those inspired by the ancient Greeks) but lived within it, and began to gather people in conventicles. 'It wished to make the invisible Church of the elect visible on this world.' By living free from temptations of the world they hoped to be 'made certain of their own rebirth by external signs manifested in their daily conduct.'

p82

This emotional aspect 'led religion in practice to strive for the enjoyment of salvation in this world rather than to engage in the ascetic struggle for certainty about the future world.'

Its intensity also gave it a hysterical character completely counter to Calvinist rationalism. And it tended towards creating monastic-like communities separated from the world.

But without the emotional aspect, 'the practical effect of Pietistic principles was an even stricter ascetic control of conduct in the calling, which provided a still more solid religious basis for the ethic of the calling, than the mere worldly respectability of the normal Reformed Christian...'

p82

German Pietism, based on Luther, led away from predestination.

p83

>From Weber's point of view, 'Pietism meant simply the penetration of methodically controlled and supervised, thus of ascetic, conduct into the non-Calvinistic denominations.' But the natural hostility of Lutheranism to it led to lack of consistency.

[long and hard to follow section]

Note 145 p215

Puritans, Baptits and Pietists favoured physics. 'The empiricism of the seventeenth century was the means for asceticism to seek God in nature. It seemed to lead to God, philosophical speculation away from Him.' Spener particularly considered Aristotle very harmful to Christian tradition.

p87

The glorification of apostolic poverty was a barrier to development of a rational economic ethic.

p88

The orientation towards emotional satisfaction was not as powerful a driver to rationalise worldly activity as Calvinistic need for proof with their 'exclusive preoccupation with the beyond.'

'...the virtues favoured by Pietism were more those on the one hand of the faithful official, clerk, labourer, or domestic workers and on the other of the predominantly patriarchal employer with a pious condescension... Calvinism, in comparison, appears to be more closely related to the hard legalism and the active enterprise of bourgeois-capatalistic entrepreneurs.'

C. METHODISMp90

'...the only sure basis for the certitudo salutis was in principle held to be a pure feeling of absolute certainty of forgiveness, derived immediately from the testimony of the spirit, the coming of which could be definitely placed to the hour.'

Wesley's doctrine of sanctification: 'one reborn in this manner can, by virtue of the divine grace already working in him, even in this life attain sanctification, the consciousness of perfection in the sense of freedom from sin, by a second, generally separate and often sudden spiritual transformation.' After which 'sin at least no longer has power over him.'

Works were not the cause but the means of knowing one's state of grace.

p91

Grace could be lost.

'...the Methodist ethic appears to rest on a foundation of uncertainty similar to Pietism. But the aspiration to the higher life, the second blessedness, served it as a sort of makeshift for the doctrine of predestination.'

p92

'...the emotion, once awakened [methodically], was directed into a rational struggle for perfection.'

'The emotional excitement took the form of enthusiasm which was only occasionally, but then powerfully stirred but which by now means destroyed the otherwise rational character of conduct. The regeneration of a Methodism thus created only a supplement to the pure doctrine of works a religious basis for ascetic conduct after the doctrine of predestination had been given up.' The signs of true conversion were the same as those in Calvinism. Methodism, as a late product, added nothing new to the idea of the calling.

D. THE BAPTIST SECTSp93

The main feature of the Baptists, Mennonites and above all the Quakers: 'the visible Church... was no longer looked upon as a sort of trust foundation for supernatural ends, an institution, necessarily including both the just and the unjust, whether for increasing the glory of God (Calvinistic), or as a medium for bringing the means of salvation to men (Catholic and Lutheran), but solely as a community of personal believers of the reborn, and only these. In other words, not as a Church but as a sect.'

Note 173 p222

Baptists did not approve of the term 'sect'. Weber uses it of them because they lack all connection to the State.

p93

'The justification through this faith... consisted rather in taking spiritual possession of His gift of salvation. But this occurred through individual revelation, by the working of the Divine Spirit in the individual, and only in that way.'

p94

The importance of doctrine was minimised. Strict avoidance of the world, 'in the sense of all not strictly necessary intercourse with worldly people.'

Baptist sects retained an absolute hostility to idolatry of the flesh, 'as a detraction from the reverence due to God alone.'

p95

'...the continued life of the Word, not as a written document, but as the force of the Holy Spirit working in daily life, which speaks directly to any individual who is willing to hear, was the sole characteristic of the true Church.'

This led to the 'significance of the inner testimony of the Spirit in reason and conscience. This did away, not with the authority but with the sole authority of the Bible, and started a development which in the end radically eliminated all the remained of the doctrine of salvation through the Church...'

For the Quakers this opened up salvation to those who had never known the Bible.

'Without the inner light, the natural man, even the man guided by natural reason, remained purely a creature of the flesh...'

p96

'...the gift of God's grace could not be earned, but only one who followed the dictates of his conscience could be justified in considering himself reborn.'

Since predestination was rejected, Baptist morality rested psychologically on 'expectant waiting for the Spirit to descend...'

p97

'...the idea that God only speaks when the flesh is silent evidently meant an incentive to the deliberate weighing of courses of action and their careful justification in terms of individual conscience.'

'Since these communities would have nothing to do with the political powers and their doings, the external result also was the penetration of life in the calling with these ascetic virtues.'

p98

'The whole shrewd and conscientious rationality of Baptist conduct was thus forced into non-political callings.'

But the practical adoption, especially by the Quakers, of the maxim 'honesty is the best policy' was significant. [Weber says he will explain why later]

p99

Goethe: "The man of action is always ruthless; no one has a conscience but an observer."

Unlike in early Protestant social institutions '...the ecclesiastical supervision of the life of the individual, which as it was practised in the Calvinistic State Churches, almost amounted to an inquisition, might even retard that liberation of individual powers which was conditioned by the rational ascetic pursuit of Salvationist, and in some cases actually did so.'

p100

The voluntary aspect of Baptist sects and to differing degrees Calvinistic, Methodist and Pietist communities was favourable to the intensity of their asceticism.

[Looking ahead to the next chapter...]

Decisive was 'the conception of the state of religious graces, common to all the denominations, as a status which marks off its possessor from the degradation of the flesh, from the world.'

Though the means differed, '...it could not be guaranteed by any magical sacraments, by relief in the confession, nor by individual good works. That was only possible by proof in a specific type of conduct unmistakably different from the way of life of the natural man. From that followed for the individual an incentive methodically to supervise his own state of grace in his own conduct, and thus to penetrate it with asceticism. But, as we have seen, this ascetic conduct meant a rational planning of the whole of one's life in accordance with God's will.'

Ch 5: ASCETICISM AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISMp102

When religion was totally integrated into society at all levels '...the religious forces which express themselves through such channels are the decisive influences in the formation of national character.'

p103

Comparing Richard Baxter's Christian Directory, the most complete compendium of Puritan Ethics, Spener's Theologische Bedenken (Pietism) and Barclay's Apology (Quakerism)...

p104

For Baxter: 'The real moral objection is to relaxation in the security of possession, the enjoyment of wealth with the consequence of idleness and the temptations of the flesh, above all of distraction from the pursuit of a righteous life. In fact, it is only because possession involves this danger of relaxation that it is objectionable at all.'

'Waste of time is thus the first and in principle the deadliest of sins.'

'...inactive contemplation is also valueless, or even directly reprehensible if it is at the expense of one's daily work.

(Sunday is there for rest).

p105

For Baxter, labour is both an 'approved ascetic technique' and a defence against temptation. Sex is only permitted, even within marriage 'as the means willed by God for the increase of His glory according to the commandment, "Be fruitful and multiply."' Labour becomes an end in itself. St Paul: "He who will not work will not eat." (Thomas Aquinas interpreted this differently: once the end is achieved, the precept ceases to hold, and it doesn't apply to every individual).

p106

This applies to the wealthy also.

Thomas thought division of labour derived from the divine scheme of things. Similar for Luther, leading to his acceptance of things as they were.

p107

Puritans saw it as leading to improvement of skills, for the common good, a Utilitarian view. But additionally 'A man without a calling thus lacks the systematic, methodical character which is, as we have seen, demanded by worldly asceticism.'

For Quakers 'What God demands is not labour in itself, but rational labour in a calling.'

p108

So people could combine several callings, or change their calling, providing they have this character and do not do so thoughtlessly.

The usefulness of a calling is measured in the importance of the goods it provides for the community but also (and more importantly) in private profitableness.

If God shows you a lawful way to make more profit than another way it would be rejecting God's gifts to choose the other.

p109

'To wish to be poor was, it was often argued, the same as wishing to be unhealthy;' Begging 'is not only the sin of slothfulness, but a violation of the duty of brotherly love according to the Apostle's own word.'

Luther's idea of the calling came from his translation of the book of Jesus Sirach, a traditional book particularly popular with Lutherans and German Pietists.

p110

The Puritans rejected it but were influenced by the Book of Job which featured an incomprehensible, majestic God and also promised blessings and material reward in this life.

Parts of the Old Testament which praised formal legality were also influential.

Puritanism was rightly characterised as 'English Hebraism' but only Judaism as it became after centuries of legalistic development and education.

p111

'The Jews stood on the side of the politically and speculatively oriented adventurous capitalism; their ethos was, in a word, that of pariah-capitalism. But Puritanism carried the ethos of the rational organisation of capital and labour. It took over from the Jewish ethic only what was adapted to this purpose.'

The Puritan belief that they were the chosen people 'played its part in developing that formalistic, hard, correct character which was peculiar to the men of that heroic age of capitalism.'

Why? Its asceticism 'turned with all force against one thing: the spontaneous enjoyment of life and all it had to offer.' Cf the Book of Sports brought into law by James I and Charles I to counter Puritanism...

p112

...and its 'anti-authoritarian ascetic tendency... which was so dangerous to the State.'

'...just as to-day capitalistic society tends to protect those willing to work against the class morality of the proletariat and the anti-authoritarian trade union.'

For Puritans, sport was accepted if it improved physical efficiency, but condemned as an enjoyable leisure activity.

It was hostile to aspects of culture without any immediate religious value, but supported science (except for Scholasticism)...

p113

...and the great Puritans were steeped in Renaissance culture.

But they hated literature, fine arts, theatre, magic and superstition.

p114

'That powerful tendency toward uniformity of life, which to-day so immensely aids the capitalistic interest in the standardisation of production, had its ideal foundations in the repudiation of all idolatry of the flesh.'

Yet in so far as Puritanism led to 'a powerful spiritualisation of personality' it had a decided (albeit delayed and long term) benefit to literature.

Enjoyment of cultural goods was also limited: they should not cost anything.

p115

Protestant asceticism 'restricted consumption, especially of luxuries. On the other hand, it had the psychological effect of freeing the acquisition of goods from the impulse of traditionalist ethics.'

p116

'...they set the clean and solid comfort of the middle-class home as an ideal.'

'When the limitation of consumption is combined with this release of acquisitive activity, the inevitable practical result is obvious: accumulation of capital through ascetic compulsion to save. The restraints which were imposed upon the consumption of wealth naturally served to increase it by making possible the productive investment of capital.' This was noted in New England and even in Holland, which was dominated by strict Calvinism for only 7 years.

p117

The Puritan hostility to feudalism also checked the absorption of middle-class fortunes into the nobility. Interest in agriculture spread from the landlord to all levels of the Puritan community. Note also the conflicts in North America between the feudalistic plantation owners and the Puritans.

The Puritan outlook 'favoured the development of a rational bourgeois economic life; it was the most important, and above all the only consistent influence in the development of that life. It stood at the cradle of the modern economic man.'

p118

In practice it gave way to temptations of the flesh, as with monasticism before it.

'...the whole history of monasticism is in a certain sense the history of a continual struggle with the problem of the secularising influence of wealth.'

John Wesley: "For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality and these cannot but produce riches, but as riches increase, so will pride, anger and love of the world in all its branches."

p119

...so people should give away all they can, to grow in grace and lay up a treasure in heaven.

The economic significance of these great religious movements which 'lay above all in their ascetic educative influence, generally came only after the peak of the purely religious enthusiasm was past. Then the intensity of the search for the kingdom of God commenced gradually to pass over into sober economic virtue; the religious roots died out slowly, giving way to utilitarian worldliness.'

p120

The great religious epoch bequeathed an amazingly good conscience in the acquisition of money to its utilitarian successor.

It gave the businessman a willing workforce and 'the comforting assurance that the unequal distribution of the goods of this world was a special dispensation of Divine Providence, which in these differences, as in particular grace, pursued secret ends unknown to men.'

Begging has been glorified by Catholicism in the mendicant orders but...

p121

Puritan Asceticism played a part in the severe English Poor Relief Legislation - Puritans did not have any beggars in their midst.

p123

'The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so.'

p124

'...the individual generally abandons the attempt to justify it at all. In the field of its highest development, in the United States, the pursuit of wealth, stripped of its religious and ethical meaning, tends to become associated with purely mundane passions, which often actually give it the character of sport.'

Weber closes with a sketch of the work needed to build upon the above, which is just the preparation, not the conclusion of an investigation.