Weber And Religion

Weber contributed to the study of religion by attempting to analyse how theology and religious practice contributed to the emergence of secular capitalist modernity. Unlike Durkheim, Weber did not treat religion an essence and his task to uncover it, but rather was concerned with the relationships between religious factors and economic and political processes. Furthermore, he had a distaste for general concepts, preferring to conduct historical analysis to find origin of ideas. Weber’s primary contribution to the study of religion can be found in his famous text ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’. In it he argues, through a comparative historical analysis, that particular types of Protestantism (especially Calvinism) and the …show more content…
Weber was interested in historical comparative form of analysis and believed a causal analysis could be applied to the social sciences. Weber asks how did the historically peculiar circumstance of a drive to the accumulation of wealth alongside an absence of interests in the worldly pleasures come about? Weber argues that this spirt of modern capitalism comes from the worldly aestheticism of Puritanism, as focused through the concept of the calling. According to Weber, the concept of the ‘calling’ was introduced by Luther and did not exist in Catholic theology. ‘The calling’ makes the highest form of obligation of the individual the duty to fulfil their duty in worldly affairs, as opposed to the monastic life promoted by Catholicism. Weber argues that the idea of the calling becomes more developed in various Puritan sects, especially Calvinism. Weber picks out doctrine of predestination, that only some people are chosen by God to be saved and that this choice is predetermined, as be especially important in the development of the capitalist spirit. The doctrine meant that followers of Calvinism could not be sure whether would receive salvation, leading to feelings of intense “inner loneliness” . The ruthless uncertainty of salvation could not be accepted by Calvin’s following leading them to both regard themselves as choses, for lack of certainty could be seen as a sign of insufficient faith and see the performance of ‘good works’ in worldly activity as an accepted medium where such surety could be demonstrated. Therefore, success in one’s calling came to be seen as ‘sign’ of being one of the elect. This Weber argues, gave the accumulation of wealth a moral sanction, so long as it was combined with sober, industrious career. Calvinism thus gave the capitalist entrepreneur moral sanction, energy and drive. This