Weber: Religion As A Force For Change

What are the two ways in which religion can be seen as a conservative force?

1. It upholds traditional beliefs about how society should be organised.

2. It stabilises society and maintains the status quo.

What do most religions have traditional conservative beliefs about?

Moral issues, and many of them oppose changes that would allow individuals more freedom in personal and sexual matters. For example, the Catholic Church forbids divorce, abortion, artificial contraception, opposes gay marriage and condemns homosexual behaviour.

What do most religions uphold?

‘Family values‘ and often favour a traditional patriarchal domestic division of labour.

Where do traditional conservative values also predominate?

In non-Christian religions. For example, Hinduism endorse male domestic authority and the practice of arranged marriage.

How else is religion a conservative force?

In that it functions to conserve things as they are and maintain the status quo.

In Weber’s study of the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, what does he argue?

That the religious beliefs of Calvinism helped to bring about major social change - specifically the emergence of modern capitalism in Northern Europe in the 16/17th centuries.

What does Weber note about many past societies?

That they had capitalism in the sense of greed for wealth, which they often spent on luxury consumption.

Why does Weber argue that modern capitalism is unique?

Because it is based on the systematic, efficient, rational pursuit of profit for its own sake, rather than for consumption. Weber calls this the spirit of capitalism.

According to Weber, what does the spirit of capitalism have?

An elective affinity or unconscious similarity to the Calvinists’ beliefs and attitudes. 

What are some of the distinctive beliefs of Calvinism?

• Predestination.

• Divine transcendence.

• Asceticism.

• The idea of a vocation or calling.

What is predestination?

The belief that God had predetermined which souls would be saved - ’the elect’ and which would not, even before birth. Individuals could do nothing to change this. God’s decision is already made and cannot be altered.

What is divine transcendence?

The belief that God was so far above and beyond this world and so incomparably greater than any mortal, that no human could possibly claim to know his will other than what he had chosen to reveal through the Bible. This included the Church and its priests - leaving Calvinists’ to feel ‘an unprecedented inner loneliness‘.

When divine transcendence was combined with the doctrine of predestination, what did this create?

What Weber calls a salvation panic in the Calvinists. They could not know whether they had been chosen to be saved, and they could not do anything to earn their salvation.

What does asceticism refer to?

The abstinence, self-discipline and self-denial; refraining from luxury and avoiding excess in order to devote themselves to God and a life of prayer.

Before Calvinism, what did the idea of a religious vocation mean?

Renouncing everyday life to join a convent or monastery. Weber calls this ‘other-wordly asceticism‘.

In contrast to pre-Calvinist notions of religious vocations, what did Calvinism introduce?

The idea of ‘this wordly-asceticism‘. For Calvinists, the idea of a calling or vocation meant constant, methodical work in an occupation. However, work could not earn salvation, it was simply a religious duty.

Because of the idea of a vocation/calling, what kind of lifestyles did Calvinists lead?

An ascetic lifestyle shunning all luxury, worked long hours and practised rigorous self-discipline. Idleness is a sin.

What are the consequences of Calvinists’ hard work and asceticism?

1. Their wealth and success performed a psychological function for the Calvinists that allowed them to cope with their salvation panic. As they grew wealthier , they took this as a sign of God’s favour and their salvation.

2. Driven by their work ethic, they systematically and methodically accumulated wealth by the most efficient and rational means possible. But not permitting themselves to squander it on luxuries, they reinvested it in their businesses which grew and prospered, producing further profit to reinvest and so on/ In Weber’s view, this is the very spirit of modern capitalism - where the object is simply the acquisition of more and more money as an end in itself. Calvinism thus brought capitalism as we now know it into the world.

In Weber’s theory, what is it very important to note?

That he was not arguing that Calvinist beliefs were the cause of modern capitalism, but simply that they were one of its causes. The protestant work ethic was not sufficient on its own to bring modern capitalism into being. A number of material factors were necessary.

What else does Weber note?

That there have been other societies that have had a higher level of economic development than Northern Europe had in the 16/17th centuries, but still failed to develop modern capitalism. He argues that ancient China and India were materially more advanced than Europe, but capitalism did not take off there. He argues that the failure of capitalism was due to the lack of a religious belief system like Calvinism.

In India, what kind of religion was Hinduism?

An ascetic religion, favouring renunciation of the material world. Its orientation was other-wordly - it directed its followers’ concerns away from the material world and towards the spiritual world.

In ancient China, what did Confucianism discourage?

The growth of rational capitalism, but for different reasons. It was also a this wordly religion but it was not acetic.

What did both Hinduism and Confucianism lack?

The drive  to systematically accumulate wealth that is necessary for modern capitalism.

What was Calvinism unique in?

Combining asceticism with this-wordly orientation to enable the spirit of modern capitalism to emerge.

What is Weber’s work often described as?

A debate with Marx’s ghost‘ as while Marx saw material factors as the driving force of change, Weber argues that material factors alone are not enough to bring about capitalism.

What does Kautsky (Marxist) argue?

That Weber underestimates economic factors in bringing capitalism into being. He argues that in fact, capitalism  preceded rather than followed Calvinism.

What does Tawney (Marxist) argue?

That technological change, not religious ideas, caused the birth of capitalism. IT was only after capitalism was established that the bourgeoisie adopted Calvinist beliefs to legitimate their pursuit of economic gain.

Why has Weber been criticised?

Because capitalism did not develop in every country where there were Calvinists, like Scotland.

What do Weberians like Marshall argue?

That capitalism did not develop in every country where there were Calvinists because of a lack of investment capital and skilled labour - supporting Weber’s point that both material and cultural factors need to present for capitalism to emerge.

What do other critics argue?

That although Calvinists were among the first capitalists, this was not because of their beliefs but simply because they had been excluded by law from Beliefs in Society political office and many of the professions, like the Jews in Eastern Europe. They turned to business as one of the few alternatives open to them. However, Weberians reply that other religious minorities were also excluded in this way but did not become successful capitalists.