The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

by

Max Weber

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Themes and Colors
Religion and the “Capitalist Spirit” Theme Icon
The Protestant Calling Theme Icon
Calvinistic Predestination Theme Icon
Puritan Asceticism Theme Icon
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The Protestant Calling Theme Icon

In the 1500s, German Catholic monk Martin Luther began challenging the Catholic Church on its teachings about salvation and serving God, which initiated the Protestant Reformation and marked the beginning of Protestantism’s spread across Europe. Among other things, Luther fiercely criticized the Catholic monastic tradition—which, as a monk, he participated in—that separated those who wanted to serve God from the secular, non-religious world. As a result, Luther developed his concept of the Christian’s “calling,” which states that the best way for one to serve God is to simply do whatever work God placed before them to the utmost of their ability. This concept of calling became a staple of Protestant theology, present in nearly every Protestant denomination, validating any and all lawful occupations as divine work when performed by faithful Christians. As such, sociologist Max Weber argues that Luther’s new concept of the calling contributed to the rise of the “capitalist spirit” by moving work from a secondary aspect of life to the divinely mandated “moral responsibility.” This, in turn, encouraged an idealization of money-making and brought about classicism and economic inequality.

Weber describes that Luther rejected Catholic monasticism as egoistic and “completely worthless,” since it does not actively participate in the world around it. In Luther’s Catholic tradition, the most religiously devout people became monks or nuns, separating themselves from the outer world by living in a monastery to reflect, privately serve God, and care for the poor. Luther himself lived as a monk for many years. However, as Luther separated from the Catholic Church, he began to see the monastic tradition as “completely worthless” and a “manifestation of unloving egoism and abdication from secular duties.” He reasoned that separating oneself from the world and the people that God made does not honor God, but instead spurns his creation. Contrasting with the Protestantism Luther soon brought to life, Weber suggests that monasticism contributed to Catholicism’s decidedly un-capitalist position, since it discourages the faithful from gathering earthly positions or participating in the competitive marketplace. Luther broke from tradition by deciding that such removal from the world is effectively “evil,” a rejection of God’s earth.

As Luther pushed further away from monasticism, he developed his concept of humanity’s “calling” that argues that all work pleases God, which Weber suggests became the foundation of the Protestant idealization of work and labor. Rather than hiding away in a monastery, Luther eventually preached that “labor in a secular calling appears as the outward expression of Christian charity,” since “division of labor forces each individual to work for others.” That is, participating in the world God made is the best way to serve and please him. Weber argues that, for Protestants, this shifts the role of one’s occupation from simply a way to earn money and feed themselves to their divine duty, the reason God created them in the first place. “Economic activity is an end in itself,” the primary means by which they serve God. Consequently, Weber argues that the “‘productivity’ of work in the capitalist sense of the word was given a powerful boost by this exclusive striving for the kingdom of God through fulfillment of the duty of labor as calling.” That is, Protestants’ religious fervor translated into economic success as well, since secular, for-profit work and spirituality became inextricably linked.

However, Weber argues that Luther’s idea of a calling relies on the idea of God’s sovereignty and thus establishes classism and inequality, which are also enablers of the capitalist spirit. As Luther develops his concept, he teaches that the “fulfillment of [earthly] duties is absolutely the only way to please God, […] therefore every legitimate occupation is quite simply of equal value,” because God sovereignly placed each person in their particular occupation. Weber argues that this furthers the shift away from Catholic monasticism, which emphasizes service to the poor. In pursuing their calling, Protestant Christians become less concerned with self-sacrifice and social good, and more focused on pursuing whatever profit-making work they may happen to have, since that is the “absolutely only way to please God.” Additionally, wealthy Protestants have the “comforting assurance that unequal distribution of this world’s goods was the special work of the providence of God,” suggesting that wealth inequality is some part of God’s divine plan. Business owners who are immensely wealthy while their neighbors starve can now “interpret[] the employer’s money-making as a ‘calling’ too.” Weber suggests this feeds into the capitalist spirit by freeing profit-makers from their scruples about the poor, traditional charity, or economic inequality, and justifying their focus on profit.

Although Weber attributes a significant aspect of the capitalist spirit, both good and bad, to Luther’s concept of the calling, he is careful to point at that this never appears to be Luther’s intention. (He notes that Luther even criticized capitalist mechanisms such as interest and usury.) Rather, Weber argues that the effects of Luther’s calling are unintended “consequences of purely religious motives,” realized long after his death.

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The Protestant Calling Quotes in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Below you will find the important quotes in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism related to the theme of The Protestant Calling.
Part 1, Section 3 Quotes

The monastic style of life is now not only completely worthless as a means of justification before God (that much is self-evident), [Luther] also sees it as a manifestation unloving egoism and an abdication from secular duties. In contrast, labor in a secular calling appears as the outward expression of Christian charity.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker), Martin Luther
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

The salvation of souls and this alone is at the heart of [Protestants’] life and work. Their ethical goals and the practical effects of their teaching are all anchored firmly here and are the consequences of purely religious motives. And we shall therefore have to be prepared for the cultural effects of the Reformation to be in large measure […] unforeseen and unwished for.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker), Martin Luther, John Calvin
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 1 Quotes

Tireless labor in a calling was urged as the best possible means of attaining this self-assurance. This and this alone would drive away religious doubt and give assurance of one’s state of grace.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker), Martin Luther
Page Number: 77-78
Explanation and Analysis:

For the Baptists sects the intensity of their interest in the economic aspects of the calling was considerably increased by various factors. One of these was the refusal to accept state office, which was originally regarded as a religious duty deriving from rejection of the world […] and the strict refusal to bear arms and swear on oath disqualified them from public office.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker), Martin Luther
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

This ascetic style of life, however, as we have seen, meant a rational shaping of one’s whole existence in obedience to God’s will. And this asceticism was no longer [merely good], but could be expected of everyone wanting to be sure of salvation. This rationalization of the conduct of life in the world with a view to the beyond is the idea of calling characteristic of ascetic Protestantism.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

Now [asceticism] would enter the market place of life, slamming the doors on the monastery behind it, and set about permeating precisely this secular everyday life with its methodical approach, turning it toward a rational life in the world, but neither of this world nor for it.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker)
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 2 Quotes

What is really reprehensible is resting on one’s possessions, enjoyment of wealth with its consequences of idleness and the lusts of the flesh, and particularly distraction from striving for a “holy” life. And it is only because possessions bring with them the danger of this resting that they are dubious. […] according to god’s unambiguously revealed will, it is only action, not idleness and indulgence, that serves to increase his glory. Wasting time is therefore the most serious of all sins.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker), Richard Baxter
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:

Above and beyond this, however, work is the end purpose of life commanded by God. The Pauline principle “He who will not work, shall not eat,” applies absolutely and to everyone. Unwillingness to work is a symptom of the absence of the state of grace.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker), Richard Baxter
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:

If we may sum up what has been said so far, then, innerworldly Protestant asceticism works with all it force against the uninhibited enjoyment of possessions; it discourages consumption, especially the consumption of luxuries. Conversely, it has the effect of liberating the acquisition of wealth from the inhibitions of traditionalist ethics; it breaks the fetters on the striving for gain by not only legalizing it, but […] seeing it as directly willed by God.

Related Characters: Max Weber (speaker), Martin Luther, John Calvin
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis: