Written by: gfesadmin on January 19, 2013

I have just returned to my hotel room in a city in Central India after several hours of driving and an arduous trek up a hill and back.  The purpose was to visit a group of new Believers and see the progress of the ministry in a primitive and remote tribal village called Chuli.    This day has been grueling and physically draining , but the overall experience has left my spirit soaring within.  It is always encouraging and inspiring to observe the transforming power of the Gospel at work.   

Throughout the trip, I have also been reflecting much on my reading of Max Weber’s book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.   The evidence to substantiate this theory is right there before me often in my ministry and in that sense, today was a very special day. As I begin to grasp the significance of Weber’s assertion that the spirit of Capitalism is a result of Protestant Ethic, I realize the tremendous responsibility that is placed on my shoulder as a Christian leader. 

Chuli is an ancient village with a population of about 500 people.   They have lived off the land clearing away the forests surrounding their village on the mountainside. They have been eking out a living from meager agriculture and cattle farming for ages without any modern amenity.  The monsoons always controlled and determined their destiny.    Access to drinking water lies beyond a three Km trek over a hill.   The nearest school is 7 kms away to which a few children walk each day.  Health care by way of a tiny clinic is at a 12 Kilometers distance.  For someone sick and in need of care it is totally inaccessible.   Until four years ago the people of Chuli had never heard the Gospel.

My long journey to Chuli was to gain a first hand experience of the steady and noticeable transformation that the village was going through.  It started the day an itinerant pastor stepped into the village and several people responded to a call to commit their lives to Christ.  On entering the village, I saw a group of men at work, digging a well for the use of the community.   Sixty of them, I was told, had organized themselves to take on the task of providing drinking water.  They had decided that the village had suffered without water long enough and would do something about it.   Dividing themselves into three groups  of  20 each they were taking turns to work on this project with obvious excitement and enthusiasm.    Earlier a community center (church building) had been completed and they had contributed their mite to that in similar fashion.

Watching them work, I began to wonder, why they hadn’t done it earlier – perhaps something that could have been easily accomplished many years ago.  It would have saved their women 5 kilometer treks up a hill for water to drink.  What was it that opened their eyes to the possibilities now that they had never seen all these years?  What was it that set them free from a spirit of fatalism and decide to do something to change their ‘fate’?  What was it that was motivating and driving them to organize themselves for the common good of the entire community?  What was it that was making them more hard working than they were before?  This is attributed to the change in their religious belief.

I could not agree more with David Landes the economic historian.  Even though an unbeliever himself, he posits that it was mainly factors related to strong religious beliefs that resulted in the economic pursuits and achievements of the West. His list of factors that include the following is not a mere coincidence to Protestant ethics:

•  “the liberating joy that follows the discovery of individuals being created in the image of God
• the positive motivation for an individual who understands ones position as co-creator with God
• the religious value attached to hard and good manual work;
• the theological separation of the Creator from the creature, such that nature is subordinated to man, not surrounded with taboos;
• the Judeo Christian understanding of linear,  not cyclical, time and, therefore, of progress; and
• respect for the market
• Capitalism infused with concern and care.” (Novak n.d.)

This process has started in Chuli village with the inroads that the Christian Faith has made among its people.  There is absolutely no doubt that more changes will take place as this Faith shapes their world view, values and value systems.   Progress will come along with education, health care and training in added skills that will provide alternate employment. This in turn will create opportunities for work, trade and industry. Additional resources will be generated that will enhance their living conditions.   Capitalistic opportunities that naturally unfold will be a critical piece in the process.   What happens in Chuli falls into a pattern that has been witnessed repeatedly in the past. It is happening again.

I agree with Weber that the spirit of capitalism is indeed the result of a vibrant protestant ethic.  The search for the seeds of capitalism takes us back to the Garden of Eden and God’s mandate to Adam to  multiply and become a care taker of the rest of creation  (Gen 1:28).  We find the seeds again in the covenant made with Abraham that through him all nations will be blessed (Gen 12:2,3). Capitalism finds its seeds in the ‘Misseo Dei’ the mission of God (Luke 4:18,19).  Capitalism is essential for Development. Capitalism provides a strong self image and leads to self worth and self dignity, whether in an individual or a community when it provides opportunities to create, invest, multiply and share.  Capitalism helps break dependency and provides freedom and liberating opportunities.  Free enterprise is Biblical and God ordained. Capitalistic opportunities seen through the lens of Biblical teaching and truths, embraced on the basis of  Biblical principles with a view to further God’s reign is indeed an essential cog in lifting the world’s poor out of their poverty.

If the above is true, the Church must take measures to educate its people and enable them to bring out the positive and best results of capitalism in the world. If according to Weber it was the protestant ethic that paved the way for Capitalism, then it is the Church once again that can bring back right values and right perspectives to capitalism and guide it in the right direction.  I conclude by saying that ‘capitalism is God ordained and is indeed one of God’s gift to humanity.   This gift must be perceived and received in the right spirit.  It must be built on the foundation of Biblical values, and pursued selflessly with the right motives and with restraint as the Bible teaches.  The fruit and benefits of capitalism are to be shared sacrificially and multiplied for greater advancement of the reign of God.

My parting encouragement to the Believers in Chuli was based on Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s masterpiece (greek: poiema), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”  Eph 2:10 NIV.

Novak, Michael. Religion and Liberty. http://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-10-number-3/how-christianity-created-capitalism (accessed January 13, 2013).

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