The reading this week was challenging and engaged my intellect and emotions from a variety of angles.<\/p>\n
Main Points from Max Weber\u2019s The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism <\/em>(1904-1905)<\/strong><\/p>\n Max Weber, German Social Scientist and author of The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism <\/em>(PESC) argues that the Protestant work ethic, promoting hard work, frugality, and saving one\u2019s earnings, was causally linked to the rise of a capitalistic economy and the Industrial Revolution in the West.[1]<\/a> He believed that the Protestant Reformation created new attitudes toward work, especially among the Puritans, such that \u201cwork was no longer seen as either degrading or as a punishment for sin, but rather as a calling or vocation that should be undertaken for the glory of God.”[2]<\/a> Along with the new belief that asceticism extended to all of life\u2019s activities, arose an anxiety about \u201cindividual salvation that sought relief by finding in worldly achievement evidence of God\u2019s grace.\u201d[3]<\/a> Success in business became an indicator of salvation, spurring the common people to invest their time and labor in industrious efforts that, in Weber\u2019s opinion, could be linked to the development of capitalism. Weber says, \u201cThe religious valuation of restless, continuous systemic work in a worldly calling, as the highest means to asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of that attitude toward life which we have here called the spirit of capitalism.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n The context, both personal and national, from which Weber wrote is significant for his work. I will mention his personal context later in this blog. Regarding national context, Weber belonged to a network of intellectuals \u201cwho rose to prominence in the 1890s and contributed to a fundamental \u2018reorientation of European social thought\u2019 over the next four decades.\u201d[5]<\/a> The examination of the influence of religion on politics and economics was of great interest to many people in Weber\u2019s circle at the time. They also undertook projects pertaining to the role of the middle classes, the role of women, the transition from traditional to modern societies, and the history of the German state. \u201cThese interests represented Germany\u2019s rapid transformation from a loose confederation of largely agrarian communities into an industrial superpower, with attendant labor unrest, and [political unrest], along with the increasing sense that Imperial Germany was slipping ever further into a political abyss from which it might not emerge. It was an age of \u2018permanent crisis.\u2019\u201d[6]<\/a> Over a century after its publication, the PESC still remains one of the most influential and widely read works in social science.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Main Points from Jason Clark\u2019s Third Chapter of “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (2018)<\/strong><\/p>\n In the third chapter, \u201cAssurance, Anxiety, and the Protestant Work Ethic,\u201d of Jason Clark\u2019s thesis, Clark engages Max Weber\u2019s work to point out areas of agreement and disagreement, for the purpose of building his larger thesis. For example, Clark \u201cmodulates\u201d Weber\u2019s thesis and sign posts his own direction, saying, \u201cI now examine how the doctrine of assurance migrated into a focus on the doctrine of providence to provide an alternative ascetic to that proposed by Weber. This is the ascetic that I believe generated the greatest resonance by Evangelicalism with Capitalism.\u201d[8]<\/a> He points out that Evangelical anxieties around assurance of their salvation migrated into anxieties about providence and adds, \u201cLife in the new Protestant world generated anxiety about assurance of faith. That anxiety was attended to with a relocation of assurance into providence.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n Further building his case, he stresses that Evangelicals initially used the disciplined ascetics of the market for identity and relationships, and that these market ascetics ultimately deformed and replaced Christian social imaginaries, with market imaginations around Providence.[10]<\/a>\u00a0 He adds, \u201cBut the terms and limits of providence became increasingly set by market imaginations, rather than the original Evangelical horizons of faithful Christian living in the material world\u2026 The resistance evinced in the Protestant Work Ethic resisted the deforming forces of capitalism, and quickly gave way to new and emerging ethics that were intertwined with nonreligious imaginations for life.\u201d[11]<\/a> Clark argues that Evangelicalism is both a creature of and response to capitalism.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Three Points of Interest<\/strong><\/p>\n As I read, researched, and pondered the ideas of Weber and Clark, three issues stuck out for me.<\/p>\n Many people have translated Weber\u2019s work from German to English. These translations have various reputations for accuracy. For example, the first English translation by Talcott Parsons was finished in 1930.[12]<\/a> This is the version I read. Interestingly, many people think this version does not accurately represent Weber\u2019s ideas on every account. Yale professor, Philip Gorski comments, \u201cFor as anyone who has read the Protestant Ethic<\/em> in the original can attest, Parsons took considerable liberties with Weber\u2019s language.”[13]<\/a> Some of these liberties were \u201charmless,\u201d as when he translated the German word which literally means \u201csteel-hard shell,\u201d instead to \u201ciron cage.\u201d[14]<\/a> \u201cIron cage\u201d became the term attributed to Weber and mistakenly used by social scientists for the last century.<\/p>\n Some of Parson\u2019s incorrect translations were more substantial, such as his translation of Antriebe<\/em> as \u201csanctions\u201d rather than \u201cdrives.\u201d[15]<\/a> \u201cThis translation leads the reader to understand Calvinism as a repressive force that limits action (which may be how Parsons himself experienced it during his upbringing) rather than as a dynamic force that impelled actions (which is clearly how Weber understood it.)\u201d[16]<\/a> This illustration of errors in translation, especially in a well-respected book such as Weber\u2019s, reminds me that if we are going to gain the truest meaning of an author\u2019s words, we must read them in the original language and context in which they were written. At the very least, we must realize that a translation may not be completely accurate on every point.<\/p>\n In reading about Max Weber, I learned that he wrote The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism<\/em> as he was emerging from a serious, seven-year illness. His illness followed the death of his father and appeared to be rooted in a difficult upbringing and familial life. Historians studying Weber\u2019s writings and life argue that \u201cthe hatred [Weber] felt for\u2026the authoritarian realities in the political and domestic spheres [the Kaiser and his father], drove him to develop his notion of ethical personality and otherworldly asceticism, which is central to PESC.\u201d[17]<\/a><\/p>\n I found this interesting, and I gained an appreciation of Weber as a complex human being who brought together deep intellect and deep emotion, reflected in his work. This was a reminder to me that an author\u2019s personal story is often woven into his or her writing and adds layers of intricacy to their message and perspective. This may not be obvious as we read, but it is most likely there.<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s thesis that religion affects our economy, and our economy affects religion offers an interesting phenomenon to ponder. It\u2019s understandable that we as humans are affected by our environment and the historical context in which we grow up and develop as adults. We are impressionable beings. We also have the power to impact and contribute to our culture, as individuals and as a community. Awareness of this phenomenon is important, so that we can be as deliberate as possible in forming our values and beliefs and carefully and prayerfully know, and alter if needed, our impact on the people around us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ending with a Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n God, please help us to align with your heart and vision and to see ourselves and our world as clearly as is humanly possible. Please give us your wisdom in discerning the influence of our culture on our lives and guide us in living each day, that we might reflect your love to those around us. Thank you for your grace and care and for your deep love for us, in all of our imperfections.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Mervyn F. Bendle, \u201cMax Weber\u2019s The Protestant Ethic and the \u2018spirit\u2019 of Capitalism <\/em>(1905): A Centennial Essay\u201d James Cook University (London, England: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2005), 236-237.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Bendle, 236.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Bendle, 236-237.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em> (New York, NY: Routledge, 1992), 116.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Stuart Hughes in Bendle, 239.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Golo Mann in Bendle, 242.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Philip S. Gorski, Social Forces<\/em> 82, no. 2 (2003): 833\u201339. http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3598212<\/a>, 833.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Jason Paul Clark, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship” (2018). Faculty Publications – Portland Seminary<\/em>. 132. https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/132<\/a>, 98.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Clark, 120.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a>Clark, ii.<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Clark, 121.<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Gorski, 833.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Gorski, 833-834.<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Peter Ghosh in Gorski, 834.<\/p>\n [15]<\/a> Gorski, 834.<\/p>\n\n
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