Weber religion as a force for change

What does Weber argue about Calvinism and what is Calvinism?

Calvinism is a form of Protestantism founded by John Calvin during the Reformation.

Weber argued that while Calvinism did not start capitalism they were one factor of it, creating major social change in Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

4 central Calvinist beliefs

Pre-destination

Divine transcendent

Asceticism

The idea of a vocation or calling (a calling to serve God)

What is pre-destination ?

God has already predetermined which souls would be saved after death. These individuals would be called the elect.

There is no changing this decision so there was nothing individuals can do to alter the decision.

What is divine transendent?

God was so far above and beyond this world and so incomparably greater than any mortal, that no human being could possibly claim to know his will (other than what he had chosen to reveal through the bible).

What is salvation panic?

When Calvinists would feel ‘an unprecedented inner loneliness’. This stems from the idea of pre destination and not knowing God’s will. They could not know whether they had been chosen to be saved, and they could not do anything to earn their salvation.

What is asceticism?

This refers to abstinence, self-discipline and self-denial. For example, monks lead an ascetic existence, refraining from luxury, wearing simple clothes and avoiding excess in order to devote themselves to God and a life of prayer.

Calvinists would refrain from spending money on luxuries and instead invest it (this is how they because upper class and contributed to capitalism).

What is the idea of a vocation or calling?

This is a calling to serve God. Before Calvinism the idea of serving God meant renouncing everyday life to join a convent or monastery. Weber calls this other-worldly asceticism.

By contrast Calvinists followed their own term ‘this worldly asceticism’ which the idea that one of God’s will is for followers to live strictly disciplined, and hard-working lives within the world (their daily jobs, not monasteries) to glorify God, seeing worldly success as a potential sign of divine favour, rather than indulging in luxury, which fuelled the "spirit of modern capitalism" through reinvestment.

Evaluate Weber

Weber’s work is often described as a ‘debate with Marx’s ghost’. Marx saw economic or material factors as the driving force of change, whereas Weber argues that material factors alone are not enough to bring about capitalism. As we have just seen, in Weber’s view, it also needed specific cultural factors – the beliefs and values of Calvinism – to bring it into being.

Marxists have responded with their own criticisms of Weber. For example, Karl Kautsky (1927) argues that Weber overestimates the role of ideas and underestimates economic factors in bringing capitalism into being. He argues that in fact capitalism preceded rather than followed Calvinism.

Similarly, R.H.Tawney (1926) argues 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.