Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religion and the “Capitalist Spirit”
The Protestant Calling
Calvinistic Predestination
Puritan Asceticism
Summary
Analysis
After examining the various differences between denominations, Weber states that he will now treat Protestant asceticism as a “single phenomenon” to simplify his examination. Weber states that English Puritanism, which developed out of Calvinism, provides the best archetype to study new asceticism. English Puritanism is epitomized in the writing of Richard Baxter, the noted Puritan writer and pastor, famed for being both eloquent and objective against his theological opponents.
Although “Puritan” is sometimes used broadly—even by Weber himself—to describe the range of ascetic Protestant traditions, here he focuses specifically on the era of Puritanism in England that eventually gave rise to Protestantism in America. Richard Baxter lived roughly one century after Martin Luther and John Calvin.
Themes
Unlike Calvin, who saw wealth as beneficial because it increased the Christian’s influence in society, Baxter maintained the traditional ascetic aversion to riches. However, in Baxter’s view, wealth was only dangerous because it encouraged “idleness,” which he regarded as a supreme sin and threat to the “holy life.” In Baxter’s view, working hard at one’s calling was still the greatest mark of salvation, and thus all people must work, poor or wealthy, since “enjoyment of wealth,” luxury, and idle talk drew the believer towards sin and vice.
Baxter’s antagonism towards luxury and relaxation again suggests that, in Protestant asceticism, simple pleasure and enjoyment is the antithesis of a righteous life, since it could possibly lead to sin. This again suggests that the Protestantism that developed out of Calvin’s theology was increasingly grim and joyless.
Themes
Through this ideal, wealth itself no longer represents the real threat; only the enjoyment of wealth and its luxury is sinful. The Puritan may be extravagantly wealthy and still ascetic, so long as they don’t stop working in order to enjoy their riches. Weber notes that this is a sharp contrast to medieval asceticism—as taught by Thomas Aquinas—which holds that the most productive spiritual activity is prayer and contemplation, not labor. What Martin Luther began with his loose concept of the calling, Baxter took to far greater lengths, teaching that laboring in one’s specific field produced the greatest “fruits,” evidences of a virtuous life.
The contrast between Baxter’s and Aquinas’s views of asceticism suggests that Christianity’s values essentially flipped. While the slow and meditative life was once ideal, under Protestantism the tirelessly busy life becomes the new model of righteousness. Baxter takes Luther’s ideas to the extreme, suggesting that religious ideas can dangerously spiral far beyond what their original author intends, with significant consequences.
Themes
Consequently, Baxter viewed those who moved between fields, from temporary job to temporary job, as “casual and irregular,” at risk of “idleness” and losing their virtue. Moreover, Baxter taught that one’s calling must be beneficial to their community by providing a useful service, and must pursue the maximum profits possible. Since his theology held that God providentially gives his followers opportunity to profit, letting one of these opportunities pass by is considered a rejection of God’s providence. Within this frame, Baxter establishes wealth-making as God’s command on the Christian life, while enjoying that life is sinful and idolatrous.
Baxter’s theology subverts Catholic teaching and even the traditionalist attitude of the Bible, including Jesus Christ’s attitude. Where Christ taught his disciples to let go of riches and possessions, Baxter and the English Puritans believe that accruing wealth—but not enjoying it—is God’s command. This highlights how religious beliefs can develop and change through history, and even completely subvert themselves.
Themes
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Since Puritan theology celebrates the profit-seeking middle-class businessman, theologians like Baxter highlighted Old Testament scriptures that imply wealth is the sign of God’s favor, such as the ending of the book of Job. However, Weber argues that this conveniently overlooks the majority of the Old Testament which takes a thoroughly traditionalist stance towards money and warns against pursuing wealth. Weber states that the Puritans commit a similar mistake by arguing that “formal legal observance” of ascetic Old Testament laws please God, even though the majority of Palestinian Judaism—which produced the Old Testament—practiced the “uninhibited enjoyment of life.”
According to Weber, Puritan theology selectively focuses on scriptures that validate their own wealth. However, the idea that wealth is a sign of God’s favor carries the dark implication that poverty is a sign of God’s disdain. This would further suggest that, especially in Britain’s violent colonial era, those people who are poor because they’ve been subjugated by the British are actually poor because God does not like them. This belief, taken to its logical conclusion, embodies the very worst of exploitative religion supporting colonial expansion.
Themes
Weber describes that the Puritan’s “rational asceticism” is wholly opposed to the “uninhibited enjoyment of life.” However, they did permit some recreation, such as sport, so long as it served a rational purpose like encouraging physical fitness. Dance halls and taverns, however, were considered utterly anti-ascetic and thus antithetical to the “holy life.” Although Puritanism embraces history and scholarship and is itself steeped in Renaissance ideas, it rejects “art that appeals to the senses” and non-scientific literature, since it seems superfluous and does not provide—in their view—any rational function to God or to humanity. Weber notes that Puritans sometimes broke this disdain for art by appreciating the greats of the past, such as Rembrandt. However, the singular rule of Puritan pleasure is that it must not cost money, since that would be a poor use of the money God gave them to manage and grow.
Puritanism’s opposition to art and anything that appeals to the senses suggests that their theology discourages vibrant culture and expression. Along with the rise of dominating capitalism and obsession with work, one of the major consequences of the capitalist spirit seems to be a loss of culture. Weber’s statement that Puritans could sometimes enjoy themselves as long as they did not spend money suggests that their obsession with growing their wealth ruled over every aspect of their lives and made them miserly to the core.
Themes
In total, Protestant asceticism discourages “consumption” and free “enjoyment” of wealth, while also breaking down any religious aversion to pursuing financial gain by teaching that God wants his followers to profit. Asceticism inspires Protestants to labor without ceasing and to save or re-invest their profits into “practical” ends, rather than spend it on enjoyment or luxury. Weber states that this “obsessive desire” to build wealth effectively catalyzed the middle class, especially in Puritan communities, by instilling people with an “economically rational” mindset. Armed with spiritual discipline and an austere, methodical approach to life, the Protestant could now build his wealth with a “clear conscience”—and believe that it is even his moral “duty” to do so. However, wealth inevitably secularizes people and brings the many temptations now available with it.
Again, Protestant asceticism effectively flips Catholic monastic values on their head. Where the Catholic ideal life is quiet, contemplative, and free from influence of wealth, the Protestant ideal is one of perpetual busyness and accumulation of wealth. Protestant asceticism’s encouragement to save or reinvest one’s earnings reflects the mentality of the studious modern middle class as well, which confirms Weber’s argument of the direct connection between Protestant ethics and the modern capitalistic mentality.
Themes
As the businessmen rise, Weber argues that they could conveniently interpret their dominance and obvious wealth inequality as God’s divine will, which secretly plays into his own plans for humanity. Additionally, the capitalist could enjoy better, more dependable and methodical workers who saw work not as the mere means to an end, but as their primary reason for existence, their mandated role in which to serve God. Weber suggests that this new form of asceticism thus plays a powerful role in developing the capitalist spirit.
The capitalists’ ability to interpret wealth inequality as God’s will suggests that Protestant ethics entrench social disparity and poverty, rather than combat it. This again seems antithetical to both the Catholic monastic tradition and Jesus’s teachings in the New Testament, which advocate for relinquishing wealth and sharing with the poor.
Themes
Weber concludes that Puritan asceticism was handed down to modern society, even for those not religious themselves: “The Puritans wanted to be men of the calling—we, on the other hand, must be.” When asceticism moved from a monastic concept to the backbone of working life, Weber argues that it built the “mighty cosmos of the modern economic order” that seems to have no end in sight. Though Baxter advised his followers against materialism, the modern rising living standards have produced an era that is more fundamentally materialist than any era in human history. Even in countries that have largely shed their religious influences, the capitalist spirit remains the most dominant impulse. People work ceaselessly without really knowing why.
Weber’s statement that all people are now “men of the calling” suggests that one cannot simply reject Protestantism’s influence over their life by not participating in religion. The fact that, according to Weber, Protestantism developed the capitalist spirit, which led to the modern materialist age is grimly ironic. Rather than creating a world free from greed, poverty, or disparity, Protestant Christianity seems to have encouraged it.
Themes
Weber fears that this will only continue, that future humanity will imagine itself to be the height of human culture, when really it is the least culturally developed and most enslaved to work. However, that is beyond the scope of his historical examination of Protestantism’s development of the capitalist spirit. Although religion is not solely responsible for modern capitalism, Weber argues that it played a significant role in shaping it.
Weber’s fear that future humanity will be the least cultured people to ever exist stems from Puritanism’s rejection of artistic expression in favor of labor and profit.
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