The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Analysis

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, without a doubt the most widely recognized work by the preeminent German sociologist Max Weber, takes the form of a book-length scholarly essay published in two parts—of roughly one hundred pages each—titled “Das Problem” (the problem) and “Die Berufsethik des asketischen Protestantismus” (the ethic of the calling in Protestant asceticism). Each part is further divided into a number of subparts (or sections) and is accompanied by an extensive body of notes—84 for part 1 and 309 for part 2—in which Weber not only cites his sources but also elaborates on many of his arguments by providing a plethora of detailed and often-lengthy examples and explanations. Taken together, these notes serve to elevate the essay from a mere collection of sociological assertions to a well-argued and painstakingly documented example of modern research in the social sciences—an example embracing Weber’s oft-stated and, in terms of present-day sociology, highly visionary belief that all studies of man and society should be firmly rooted in the scientific method (valid experimentation, statistical documentation, and the like).

When Weber republished The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism as part of his Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Religionssoziologie (collected essays on the sociology of religion) in 1920 and 1921, he expanded the already monumental aggregate of notes to incorporate the various criticisms of his fellow sociologists and, additionally, supplied the essay with a short preface outlining several of the most important responses to the work since its first appearance in 1905. These responses included Felix Rachfahl’s Kalvinismus und Kapitalismus (1909; Calvinism and capitalism) and Lujo...

Max Weber, one of the founders of modern sociology, and certainly one of the most brilliant and influential social thinkers of the twentieth century, was essentially unknown in the United States until the 1930 publication of Talcott Parsons’s translation of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Having first published the work in 1904-1905, Weber produced a revised edition shortly before his death in 1920. The book was Weber’s entry into a number of contemporary debates, and this multidimensional quality contributes to its status as a classic. For example, with his book, Weber took a stand in an important methodological debate of his day known to historians of the social sciences as the Methodenstreit, or the struggle over method. In this debate between those who believed the social sciences should follow a method more in line with the natural sciences and those who argued for a method based on the historical approach to human phenomena, Weber demonstrated the possibilities of the latter with his groundbreaking historical analysis of the rise of modern capitalism.

On another front, Weber argued that religion had been a decisive determinant in Western economic development, thus disputing Marxist analyses that reduced ideological expression to primarily economic determinants. Perhaps most important, Weber entered into the debate concerning the nature of modernity itself. In his presentation of the “spirit” of the modern...

Referring to the writings of the eighteenth century American Benjamin Franklin, Weber argues that what is most distinctive about modern capitalism is not that it is characterized by greedier, more adventuresome capitalists than in previous eras, but rather that modern economic life is pervaded by the notion that it is one’s paramount duty to work proficiently in one’s “calling.” When Franklin admonished his readers that “Time is money,” he was expressing not merely a shrewd business maxim but an ethical stance toward life. This stance emphasized subordination of one’s own interests to the interests of one’s calling or one’s business, diligence and discipline in economic matters, and abhorrence of idleness in both oneself and one’s money. Modern capitalism emerged in part because sufficient numbers of people renounced the traditional estimation of work as a mere means to maintain an accustomed way of life and instead adopted this ascetic ethic in their everyday working lives. They, like Franklin, came to think of careful reinvestment and relentlessly methodical labor in one’s vocation as a testimony to one’s moral and social worth. These people were bearers of the modern capitalist spirit. However, who were they, and where did they acquire this notion of calling?

Weber’s argument is that Protestantism produced not capitalism, but rather this notion of a calling. During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, with his doctrine...