{"id":4149,"date":"2015-02-26T01:07:57","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T01:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=4149"},"modified":"2015-02-26T01:08:16","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T01:08:16","slug":"our-work-is-never-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/our-work-is-never-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Work Is Never Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Weber\u2019s classic book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em> was a book I heard referred to often but had never gotten my hands on. I kind of understood the premise going in but it wasn\u2019t until actually holding my book (actually two books because it\u2019s not just the older cohort members that accidentally buy two of the same book) that I really understood the significance of Weber\u2019s research and thoughts. Weber takes an in-depth look at the rise of capitalism and the significant role Christianity, particularly Calvinism, had in helping capitalism thrive.<\/p>\n

I live in such a post reformation, capitalistic world, and have been influenced strongly with a white suburban corporate background, that I have trouble relating to Weber\u2019s quote when he says, \u201cA man does not ‘by nature’ 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 for that purpose.[1]<\/a>\u201d It seems to me that by \u201cnature\u201d I witness men and women work 60+ hour work weeks with the desire to \u201cone up the Joneses\u201d next door. I do not doubt Weber\u2019s research but it is just so hard for me to relate to. I believe what Weber says and that Calvinism helped propel capitalism, but that leaves us asking has capitalism changed \u201chuman nature\u201d that drastically? Even many of the Ugandans I know have a strong work ethic and are trying to give their children a life they never had.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I also see this playing out in our churches. I recently heard a fellow pastor say, \u201cOur work is never done.\u201d Hard to disagree with him but coming from this specific man it was hard for me to take. I question many pastors\u2019 callings and wonder whose kingdom they are really trying to build. I have no doubt some pastors feel called to work 70 hour work weeks and build multimillion dollar buildings, but often I feel a capitalistic competitive mentality among churches. How did we get here?<\/p>\n

Weber has challenged me and has forced me to question how the church\u2019s theology is inseparably linked with the market system. Weber\u2019s work causes us to continue asking how is the church thinking through the marketplace and how should we act and influence the greater system?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know the answer but I greatly enjoyed Weber\u2019s quote of John Wesley\u2019s answer to a similar question. Sorry for the long quote but it was a big take away for me from the book.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches. How then is it possible that Methodism, that is, a religion of the heart, though it flourishes now as a green bay tree, should continue in this state? For the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal; consequently they increase in goods. Hence they proportionately increase in pride, in anger, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away. Is there no way to prevent this \u2013 this continual decay of pure religion? We ought not to prevent people from being diligent and frugal; we must exhort all Christians to gain all they can, and to save all they can; that is, in effect, to grow rich.\u2019 There follows the advice that those who gain all they can and save all they can should also give all they can, so that they will grow in grace and lay up a treasure in heaven[2]<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0We are not called to grow and grow our wealth to build our own grand kingdoms but Wesley gives capitalistic Christians a possible best-case scenario when we can be motivated to grow and grow our wealth for the sake of growing the Kingdom of God. Lord, please help me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Max Weber,\u00a0The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>\u00a0(London: Routledge, 2001), 60.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 119<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Weber\u2019s classic book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was a book I heard referred to often but had never gotten my hands on. I kind of understood the premise going in but it wasn\u2019t until actually holding my book (actually two books because it\u2019s not just the older cohort members that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"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":[11],"class_list":["post-4149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-weber","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4150,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149\/revisions\/4150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}