Weber, Max (1864–1920)

Max Weber, an original mind and one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, laid the ground for the theoretical and empirical foundations of the sociology of religion and the comparative analysis of civilizations. His classical essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of[Page 1372]Capitalism is a refutation of a vulgar historical materialism that dismisses the role of religious values and beliefs in social action. In this early essay, published between 1904 and 1905 in the journal Archive for Social Science and Social Policy, Weber addresses the problem of the relationship between religion and modernity and the impact of religious values and beliefs on the modifications of human behavior and its subsequent effects on the rise of modern capitalism. His analysis focuses on one form of inner-worldly asceticism: Calvinist Puritanism.

Weber's thesis argues that the rise of modern capitalism was the unintended consequence of the actions of the Puritans, who were seeking a “right religious form of life” to reach salvation. The Puritans, following Calvin's theology, thought that the only way to attain salvation was to dedicate themselves to the construction of the Kingdom of God on earth. The Puritans redefined their relationship with nature and with themselves through hard work and religious discipline. This “redirectionality” of people toward nature was possible only by the radicalization of the Christian doctrines of salvation and the theological conceptions of the inscrutability of God and predestination of souls—the idea that God's intentions are beyond human comprehension and that salvation does not depend on one's own effort. No individual, according to Calvin, has the power to decide his or her salvation; only God has this power. Our works do not contribute anything to this purpose. In Calvin's writings, the desperate Puritan found a “path” that clearly set the steps to true religious piety and salvation. In their search for certainty, the Puritans found a form of corroboration of being chosen by God in the realization of their callings and in their everyday jobs and activities. As a consequence, every detail of life changed, including habits of work, social relationships, and even sexual behavior. In this process, asceticism and hard work, the main expressions of Calvinist conversion, permitted the creation, accumulation, and reproduction of capital. The irony of this phenomenon is that Puritanism undermined its own purposes. Capitalism grew, and Puritanism eventually faded away; the world became the scene of a ceaseless market and not the domain of Puritan morality.

However, the thesis that predestination had a fundamental role in the rise of capitalism is only a surface-level view of Weber's work. Weber considered that “rational capitalism” and “Protestant ethic” are ideal types used to emphasize one of the multiple factors that determined the emergence of modern capitalism. Weber undertook a comparative analysis of other civilizations to determine the specific social conditions that were fundamental in the rise of Western capitalism.

For Weber, capitalism is a new form of restructuring social space according to a specific form of rationality that was possible only in Western societies. In looking for answers to this singularity, he undertook a work of comparative scholarship. Between 1916 and 1917, Weber published his essays on the religions of India, China, and Ancient Judaism. In 1920, these essays were published in a single book titled Collected Essays on the Sociology of Religion.

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