{"id":298,"date":"2014-02-22T14:28:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T14:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=298"},"modified":"2014-10-28T16:55:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T16:55:30","slug":"who-will-live-in-the-cage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/who-will-live-in-the-cage\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Will Live in the Cage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My copy of the book, The<\/em> Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em> is almost all marked with yellow highlighter. And almost every three or four pages has post-it tags sticking out of the pages. There is a reason why my book is marked in this manner.<\/p>\n

Is it because:<\/p>\n

(a)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the yellow markings are prove of my hard work, \u00a0good deeds and salvation;<\/p>\n

(b)\u00a0\u00a0 it is instructive to trace (highlight<\/em>) with Weber, the influence of religious ideas on economic development (p.11)<\/p>\n

(c)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have an over-abundance of yellow highlighters<\/p>\n

If you guessed (b) then you are correct, but probably not for the reason you think.\u00a0 The real reason I highlighted and put post-it tags on my pages was because I found Weber a little dry. So, I found myself going back to the beginning of the book and highlighting over and over again certain words and phrases. I honestly thought I was going to highlight the entire book.\u00a0 But then I found it, the non-highlighted \u201caha\u201d section:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the \u2018saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment.\u2019 But faith decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Weber material goods have gained an increasing and an inexorable power over the individual. \u00a0It is this materialism and worldly success that has imprisoned humanity in what Weber calls the \u201ciron cage\u201d of self-perpetuating, rationalization and depersonalization. This was due in part to the influence and relationship between ascetic Protestantism and the spirit of capitalism. \u00a0Yet, it is not necessarily the economic changes that created capitalism, but it was the changes of people\u2019s ideas of what it meant to work that contributed to capitalism.<\/p>\n

Weber writes that a man does not \u201cby nature\u201d wish to earn more and more money, but simply to live as he is accustomed to live and to earn as much as is necessary from that purpose.[2]<\/a> However, it was the influence of the Calvinist doctrine of predestination that brought about a new work ethic. Calvinism led the people (believers) to look for a way to show or validate their elect status. \u00a0According to Calvinistic principles, personal wealth became actual evidence of their salvation.<\/p>\n

So, basically if you have an important job where you make significant money than that means that you are a good person.\u00a0 Not only are you a good person, but that must mean that God likes you. If you are doing well financially, you must be doing something right! Does this sound familiar?\u00a0 Profit and material success were signs of God\u2019s favor.\u00a0 Weber claims that this new thinking broke down the traditional economic system, thus creating a path for modern capitalism.[3]<\/a> The activities needed for an effective capitalism, according to Weber, is not natural. It requires education and a new attitude of rational and systematic pursuit of profit. However, in order for capitalism to prosper what is needed is for people to embrace, adopt and internalize certain values.<\/p>\n

Today, the spirit of religious asceticism has escaped from the cage, but capitalism no longer needs its support.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 So what about this iron cage?<\/p>\n

In his book, A Public Faith,<\/em> Miroslav Volf writes the following about the iron cage:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he (Max Weber) had in mind is roughly something like this: if you play the game, you\u2019ve got to play it by preset rules, which in the case of the market means that you must maximize profit, these rules, and not moral considerations, determine how the game is played. The market traps you, compelling you to act in accordance with its rules.\u201d [5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Volf goes on to say that in these situations, faith may not completely fail to shape the lives of people and their social realities. But faith can become idle in important domains in which it, as a prophetic faith, should be active.\u00a0 In the United States, the pursuit of wealth, stripped of its religious and ethical meaning, tends to become associated with purely mundane passions.[6]<\/a> We often experience a pull or tension on whether or not to refuse to play the game when the rules conflict with our religious convictions.<\/p>\n

No one knows who will live in the cage in the future or whether new prophets will arise, or if there will be a great rebirth of new ideas and ideals.[7]<\/a> Yet, we must be people of faith in our everyday activities and in the various places where we do our daily work.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a> Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>, (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003), p.181.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., p. 60.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., p. 60.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., p. 182.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[5]<\/a> Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good.\u201d <\/em>(Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2013) p. 14<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[6]<\/a> Max Weber, p.182.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[7]<\/a> Ibid., 182<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My copy of the book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is almost all marked with yellow highlighter. And almost every three or four pages has post-it tags sticking out of the pages. There is a reason why my book is marked in this manner. Is it because: (a)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the yellow markings are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,11],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-weber","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1622,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/1622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}