Setting the Stage

Weber's Starting Point

The combination of the Calvinist work ethic and the "movers and shakers" (successful business folk) being Calvinist resulted in a shift from a traditional capitalist ethos to a "Protestant" one. The rationalism that shaped the Protestant ethic, due to its incorporation into a capitalist ethos, changed the way people engaged the dominant mode of production (and changed the nature of its attributes). This ethos emphasizes bureaucratic efficiency at the expense of personal satisfaction--it is adjusted to calculations in terms of "capital." As this efficiency becomes the dominant motivation, the religious reasons (as existed, for example, in Calvinism) cease to be relevant, or needed. 

Key Terms

• Ideal Type: For Weber, this is generic and historical. It is a type or category that is meant to be employed as a heuristic device. It is not meant be all-inclusive or exact.

• Generic = general attributes, not historically contingent.

• Historical = historically contingent, specific attributes of events, situations, or individual groups.

• Original Accumulation: The shift in which human agents began to accumulate surplus for the sake of surplus. Weber does not believe that this is natural therefore its catalyst must be found in "constructed" events.

[Puritan/Calvinist middle class] are chosen to increase wealth precisely because they have the strength to steer between the contradictory demands to increase wealth, on the one hand, and not pursue wealth as a goal of life, on the other. The upshot of this class consciousness is to produce the perfect accumulator, which Weber identifies as embodying 'the capitalist spirit': "if that restraint on consumption is combined with the freedom to strive for profit, the result produced will inevitably be the creation of capital through the ascetic compulsion to save" (pp. 116-17). This is Weber's answer to the final answer to the mystery of 'original' or 'primitive' accumulation. (Breiner).

Forms of capitalism according to Weber:

• Traditional capitalism: production for the purpose of satisfaction (Weber finds a parallel in the Catholic ethos).
• Modern capitalism: accumulation for the purpose of accumulation (Weber finds a parallel in the Calvinist and Puritan ethos).

So what of Calvinism? And how is it relevant?

But first,

Remember that Weber sees in Protestantism (namely, Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Puritanism) a developing rationalization, bureaucratization, out of/away from traditional religion. Because religion was a dominant component of identity, and because the Church controlled historically much of Western Europe, this corresponded with the shift from traditional to modern capitalism.

Some basic tenets of Calvinism

John Calvin (1509-1564 CE)

Total depravity assumes that all people are unable to live apart from sin, except through the prevenient grace of God. By "prevenient grace" is meant that "grace precedes human decision." In other words, grace was always already given (but to the elect).

Paul, accordingly, after reminding the Athenians that they "might feel after God and find him," immediately adds, that "he is not far from every one of us," (Acts 17:27); every man having within himself undoubted evidence of the heavenly grace by which he lives, and moves, and has his being. But if, in order to apprehend God, it is unnecessary to go farther than ourselves, what excuse can there be for the sloth of any man who will not take the trouble of descending into himself that he man find Him? (Calvin,  Institutes)

Unconditional surrender refers to the (unrestricted) willingness to do anything that God asks or requires. This surrender is a consequence of grace.

Resistance to anything but full surrender may indicate the individual is not one of the elect.

Sovereignty of God means that God's power and authority are absolute and transcend all other forms. Consequently, all actions, thoughts, behaviors, etc., must emphasize the glory of God and not the individual (which is the pursuit of a false god).

Note how this marks the separation of the producer from the product. A parallel that Weber sees with capitalist production.

The Calvinist ethic also emphasizes irresistible grace and predestination.

Some one, perhaps, will here turn round and object, that those only peculiarly belong to the Father who make a voluntary surrender by faith. But the only thing which Christ maintains is that though the defections of vast multitudes should shake the world, yet the counsel of God would stand firm, more stable than heaven itself, that his election would never fail. The elect are said to have belonged to the Father before he bestowed them on his only begotten Son. ...

... It is asked if they were his by nature? Nay, they were aliens, but he makes them his by delivering them. The words of Christ are too clear to be rendered obscure by any of the mists of caviling. “No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him.” “Every man, therefore, that has heard and learned of the Father comes unto me,” (John 6:44, 45). (Calvin, Institutes)

Beruf in Calvinism and Lutheranism¹: Individuals are called to be productive in living out their faith.

• Religious connotation: a (consuming) task (profession) set by God
• To glorify God, individuals should not "dissipate" the fruits of their productive activities in worldly pleasures.

Sometimes, indeed, convinced by their own experience, [philosophers] do not deny how difficult it is for man to establish the supremacy of reason in himself, inasmuch as he is at one time enticed by the allurements of pleasure; at another, deluded by a false semblance of good; and, at another, impelled by unruly passions ... (Calvin, Institutes)

 

We need a kick in the pants...

• Luther (beardless and not handsome) understood profession (Beruf) and vocation (Berufung) as religious obligations.
  
• He based this on 1 Cor 7:20: "Let each of you remain in the condition (τη κλήσει = calling, role) in which you were called."
  

A similar sense is shared by Calvin,

For whence is it that one is more excellent than another, but that in a common nature the grace of God is specially displayed in passing by many and thus proclaiming that it is under obligation to none. We may add, that each individual is brought under particular influences according to his calling. (Calvin, Institutes)

And what of Puritanism?

Puritans emphasized the experiential and pastoral aspects of faith.

• Stripped away "trappings" and "formalities" of Christianity
• A type of "secularization" of ideals?

Jonathan Edwards (1703-58 CE) combined the doctrine of divine sovereignty with a willingness to engage new questions brought on by a rational worldview. This resulted in a greater emphasis upon behavior and works (still with a strong emphasis upon asceticism).

On asceticism:

Be natural, be lazy, you will burn...

The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh. (Jonathan Edwards)

On divine sovereignty (as motivation):

There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God. -- By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. (J. Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God")

 

The sovereignty of God is his absolute, independent right of disposing of all creatures according to his own pleasure. (J. Edwards, "Gods Sovereignty in the Salvation of Man")

 

Why does Weber use Protestantism?

Weber finds parallels (and a possible explanation for) between the work ethic of Calvinists and the modern capitalist work ethic. For example,

• Calvinists work for the glory of God without care for personal pleasure.
• Agents within modern capitalism accumulate for the sake of accumulation (not for enjoyment but to have more; "profit").
• This bureaucratization of an "ascetic" approach to religion is not, according to Weber, natural but found in dedication to a Beruf, or "calling."

The earning of money within the economic order is the expression of virtue and proficiency in a calling. (Weber)

Since we are dealing with Weberian "ideal types," one modern example (but rather extreme) ...

This is an example from Reformed tradition (in protest of the Prosperity Gospel) that emphasizes the sovereignty of God and the asceticism of the believer.

For reference, John Piper is reacting to the so-called Prosperity Gospel, which emphasizes "prosperity" or accumulation as a sign of God's blessing.

The Calvinist, on Weber's account, is driven to order life methodically precisely because God as set a plan for the world but will not reveal it. Weber famously claims that this doctrine encouraged in the Calvinist an irrational fear that he was not among the elect, and so to discharge this fear, he must engage in some worldly activity, but of what kind is completely open. ... The substance is constituted by one's vocation or calling, which is God's purpose in this world. (Breiner)

Genetic or Constructed Desire(s)?

The Impulse to Acquire?

But capitalism is identical with the pursuit of profit, and forever renewed profit, by means of continuous, rational, capitalistic enterprise. For it must be so: in a wholly capitalistic order of society, an individual capitalistic enterprise which did not take advantage of its opportunities for profit-making would be doomed to extinction. (R. Swedberg)

People do not 'by nature' wish to earn more and more money, but simply to live as they are accustomed to living and to earn as much as necessary for this purpose (Weber).

If true, the modern capitalist ethos cannot be natural. But it exists, and the reason that it does must be found in social-economic production.

Original Accumulation

Weber reacts to theorists such as Adam Smith, who argues that the market provides motivation, in the form of competition, to pursue profit as a benefit to self-interest. Self-interest and competition drive exchange, and division of labor is a consequence.

But, according to Weber, that presupposes that the market preexisted the conditions upon which it depends.

Weber also rejects the idea that capitalism is solely the product of increased reason and secularism.

Instead, through his ideal type, he finds an "inner affinity" between the Puritan-Calvinist "conduct of life" and rational capitalistic accumulation.

That motivation, he argues, came about after the Reformation in Western Europe.

• Catholic Church grew in power from 5-10 centuries CE. It was a dominant force in Western Europe from 11-16th centuries CE.
• The Catholic Church emphasized tradition: agents found satisfaction within the authority of the structure (which was already complete).
• Did not emphasize individual acquisition, success, in terms of grace but emphasized the traditional authority of the Church.

 It was a well-known finding that national and religious minorities, involuntarily excluded from positions of political influence, were driven into economic activity. (G. Hernes)

There were a few skirmishes between Catholics and Protestants...

What Weber said...

Protestants are capable of an economic rationalism that Catholics aren't, due to the permanent intrinsic nature of religious beliefs. (Contrast "satisfaction" and asceticism.)

Catholics accused Protestants of a "secularization of ideals."

Protestants "demystified" tradition and revelation (these were no longer the "capital" of the Church). Instead, Protestants emphasize faith and scripture over tradition and revelation in the structure of the Church.

Sola scriptura! (Martin Luther; "Scripture alone" = formal principle of faith)

Weber sees in the Protestant development out of Catholicism an emphasis upon rational efficiency toward acquisition.

For Weber, this marks an important shift that helped shape the space for secularization. Protestant thinking (and this may be more of an accidental consequence) began removing the hold that the Church had on social-political values and meanings.

As Weber interprets, the "ideal man" for Protestants is an "honest man of recognized credit (economically and religiously)."

There is a sense within Christianity in which human beings owe an infinite debt to God (recall prevenient grace).

Consequently, the Protestant Ethic, for Weber, provides a plausible explanation for the cultural change toward,

• Rigorous organization
• Methodical labor
• Systematic pursuit of profit (unending)

The Consequence of the Protestant Ethic?

Said Weber,

Man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose in of life.

This came about because of the radical change upon the cultural mind that occurred during the Reformation (and its repercussions). Religion = intercultural catalyst.

Reformation is not the source of rationalism but a contribution. (Weber)

But the consequence of rationalism applied to religious consciousness would eventually lead to the lack of any need for God (the rise of secularism).

Protestantism = stage before a purely rationalistic philosophy. (The reduction in mythopoetic dependence and a greater emphasis upon calculation and methodical application would eventually give way to a secular dependent upon the function/equation of rational, bureaucratic organization.)

Weber's Rationalization Thesis

Consequences

The historical drive toward a world in which one can master all things through calculation would eventually lead to one of two possibilities:

• Iron Cage ("cogs in the machine")
• Value fragmentation

The drive for calculability in capitalist institutions will result in,

• The commodification¹ of the individual
• The worker as nothing more than a number in the accounting books

¹The inappropriate treatment of something as if it can be acquired or marketed like other commodities.

"Institutional rationalization" = predicated upon a new, rational type of personality: "person of vocation"

Or, "My job defines my identity."

For Weber, the objectification (found in the drive for calculability) can be found in the disenchanted monotheistic theodicy¹ that reduced humans to being tools of God's providence.

¹Justification of God's goodness in the presence of evil.

Bureaucratic "iron cage":

No one knows who will live in this cage (Gehäuse) in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or, if neither, mechanized petrification, embellished with a sort of convulsive self-importance. For the “last man” (letzten Menschen) of this cultural development, it might well be truly said: “Specialist without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of humanity (Menschentums) never before achieved. (Weber)

If value fragmentation is the consequence of rationalism:

At the apex of rationalism, moderns will live "as the ancients did when their world was not yet disenchanted of its gods and demons" (Weber).