![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This contributed to a sense of anxiety, sometimes described as salvation panic. Indeed, people were leading these ascetic, joyless lives without knowing if they were to receive any reward in heaven. The problem with this belief is that it fails to perform many of the functions that sociologists like Parsons or Malinowski suggested religion should perform, because it offers little comfort. Good deeds, repentance, penance: none of this will save you: God had already decided your fate before you were born. Predestination is the idea that it has already been decided who will go to heaven and who will go to hell and there is nothing you can do about this during your time on Earth. This may seem an odd philosophy to kick-start an economic system based on the accumulation of ever greater wealth, but it does make sense – wait for it! The two features of Calvinism that Weber considered to be especially influential in the development of capitalism were ascetism and predestination.Īscetism is a philosophy of self-denial: the idea that Christians should lead an austere life, without luxuries. Weber identified features of the Calvinist protestant religion which he argued had the unintended consequence of playing a major role in kick-starting capitalism.Ĭalvinism was a protestant religious movement from the 16 th century. The focus of Weber's study was that religion was an engine of social change. Max Weber published his highly-influential work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |