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The Protestant Ethic Thesis in Analytical and Comparative Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Samuel N. Eisenstadt
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Weber's famous “Protestant Ethic” thesis—the thesis published originally by him as “ Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus” in Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft in Sozialpolitik, in 1901-02 (Vol. XX) and reprinted in his Gesammelte Aufsätze für Religionssoziologie, in 1920—which has allegedly attributed the rise of modern, as distinct from pre-modern, types of capitalism to the influence of Protestantism and especially of Calvinism, has provided—probably more than any other single specific thesis in the social sciences—a continuous focus of scientific controversy.

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Research Article
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Diogenes , Volume 15 , Issue 59 , September 1967 , pp. 25 - 46
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Copyright © 1967 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

* This is part of an introduction to a collection of essays on Protestant Ethics to be published by Basic Books; a shortened version of this paper was given as a lecture before the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

1 English translation as: Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans lated by T. Parsons, foreword by T. H. Tawney, London, 1930.

2 On Weber's distinction between pre-modern and modern capitalism see Max Weber, General Economic History, N. Y., Collier Book Edition, 1961, p. 4.

3 J. W. Robertson, Aspects of the Rise of Economic Individualism, Cambridge, 1933.

4 A. Fanfani, Cattolicesimo e protestantesimo nella formazione del capitalismo, Milano, 1934; English translation: Catholicism, Protestantism and Capitalism, London, 1955.

5 Kurt Samuelson, Religion and Economic Action, transl. E. G. French, Lon don, Heinemans, 1961.

6 See E. Fischoff, "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," So cial Research, vol. XI (1944), pp. 54-77; R. F. Baerling, Protestantisme en Kapitalisme, Max Weber in die Critick, Groningen-Batavia, J. B. Wolters, 1946; and see also R. H. Tawney, "Religion and Economic Life," The Times Literary Supplement, 1956. For a recent view which again takes up this type of argument see G. R. Elton, Reformation Europe, 1517-1559, London, 1963, p. 312 ff.

7 W. Hudson, "Puritanism and the Spirit of Capitalism," Church History, XVIII (1949), pp. 3-16 and idem, "The Weber Thesis Reexamined," Church History, XXX (1961), pp. 88-89; C. H. & K. George, The Protestant Mind and the English Reformation, 1570-1640, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1961. For a preliminary view see C. K. George, "Protestantism and Capitalism in Pre-Revolutionary England," Church History, XXVII (1958), pp. 351-371.

8 In this vein see also the older works of H. Hauser, reprinted in "La mo dernité du XVIe siècle," Cahiers des Annales, No. 21, Paris, 1963. Several of the relevant studies can be found in R. W. Green, ed., Protestantism and Capitalism, Boston, 1959.

9 R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, London, 1926.

10 E. Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches, 2 vols., N. Y., 1931 (new edition 1956); E. Troeltsch, Protestantism and Progress, Boston, 1958; K. Holl, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kirchengeschichte, Tübingen, 1927, esp. vols. 1, 2; K. Holl, The Cultural Significance of the Reformation, N. Y., Meridian Books, 1959.

11 On these differentiations between Lutheranism and Calvinism, as seen also from the point of view of Weber's strong emphasis on Calvinism, see B. Nelson, "Max Weber's Sociology of Religion," American Sociological Review, XXX (1965), No. 4, pp. 595-601. See also A. Müller-Armack, Religion und Wirtschaft, Stuttgart, 1959. More recently a similar thesis with regard to Lutheranism has been taken up by G. Ritter in "Das 16. Jahrhundert als weltgeschichtliche Epoche," Archiv für Geschichte der Reformation, XXXV (1938) and Die Neugestaltung Europas im 16. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1950, esp. ch. 3.

12 H. R. Trevor-Roper, "Religion, the Reformation and Social Change," Historical Studies, IV (1965), London, Bowes & Bowes, pp. 18-45. H. Luethy, "Once Again: Calvinism and Capitalism," Encounter, XXII (1964), No. 1, pp. 26-38, published previously in Preuves, 161, July 1964 and reprinted in H. Luethy, Le Passé, menace présente, Ed. du Rocher, 1965, pp. 13-25, where parts of Luethy's work on the Protestant Bank (see note 13) most relevant from the point of view of a general discussion of the Protestant Ethic thesis have also been reprinted as "Puritanisme et Société Industrielle," pp. 58-71, and "Le Prêt a Intérêt et la Compétence de la Théologie en Matière Economique," pp. 71-99. See also the discussion on Luethy which took place in the subsequent issues of Encounter and Preuves. M. Walzer, "Puritanism as a Revolutionary Ideology," History and Theory, III (1964), pp. 59-90; M. Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Univ. Press.

13 H. Luethy, La Banque Protestante en France, 2 vols., Paris, SEVPEN, 1959-61, esp. vol. II, p. 786.

14 M. Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints cit. A similar emphasis on the poli tical activities of some, especially French and Scottish Protestants, can be found in S.A. Burrell, "Calvinism, Capitalism, and the Middle Classes: Some Afterthoughts on an Old Pattern," Journal of Modern History, XXXII (1960), pp. 129-141; and H. R. Trevor-Roper, "Scotland and the Puritan Revolution," in H. Y. Bell & L. Ollard (eds.), Historical Essays 1600-1750; presented to David Ogg, London, 1963, pp. 78-130.

The transformative potentials, in the political field, of the Puritan idea of the covenant have been explored previously by many people. See among others, Hudson, op. cit.; J. G. Breuer, "Puritan Mysticism and the Development of Liberalism," Church History, 1950.

15 H. R. Trevor-Roper, "The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century," and Trevor-Roper's "General Crisis: A Symposium," in T. Aston (ed.), Crisis in Europe, London and New York, 1965, pp. 59-97 and 97-117 respectively (all these reprinted from Past and Present).

16 H. Cassin, "Quelques facteurs historiques et sociaux de la diffusion du protes tantisme en Italie méridionale," Archives de Sociologie des Religions, II (1956), pp. 55-73.

17 E. Willems, "Protestantismus und Kulturwandel in Brasilien und Chile," Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozial-psychologie, XV (1963), Sonderheft 7, pp. 307-334.

18 C. V. Moog, Bandeirantes and Pioneers, N. Y., 1964. A more enthusiastic account of the Bandeirantes is given in Cassian Ricardo, Marcha para Oeste, Rio de Janeiro, 1942, 2 vols., which does not, however, greatly differ in the analytical description of the activities of the Bandeirantes. For a general collection on the Bandeirantes see R. M. Morse (ed.), The Bandeirantes, N. Y., Knopf, 1965.

19 W. Mommsen, "Max Weber's Political Sociology," International Social Science Journal, XVII (1965), No. 1, p. 31.

20 One of the interesting analyses which deals explicitly with such transform ative capacities of religious movements after their initial failure is that of G. Sholem, "On the Sabbatean Movement in the 17th Century." See G. Sholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, N. Y., 1946, 1956, and G. Sholem, Shabbetai Tzvi (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv, 1958, 2 vols.

21 S. Andreski, "Method and Substantive Theory in Max Weber," British Journal of Sociology, XV (1964), No. 1, pp. 1-8. See also G. K. Yong's, "Introduc tion to Max Weber," The Religion of China, New York, 1964; and see also B. van der Sprenkel, "Max Weber on China," Theory and History, III (1964), pp. 348-70.

22 This point has been analyzed with great skill, with regard to the Armenians in the Netherlands and their potentially more revolutionary and open orienta tions, by L. Kolakowski, "La genèse et la structure dans l'étude des idéologies religieuses," in M. de Gandillac, L. Goldmann, J. Piaget (eds.), Entretiens sur les notions de genèse et de structure, Paris - The Hague, Mouton, 1965, pp. 307-323.

23 G. Pauck, The Heritage of the Reformation, N. Y., 1961, and also H. Richard Niebuhr, The Social Sources of Denominationalism, N. Y., Meridian Books, 1959.

24 One of the earlier expositions of this view can be found in A. D. Lindsay, The Modern Democratic State, Oxford, 1945.

25 D. Little, "The Logic of Order—An Examination of the Sources of Puritan-Anglican Controversy and of Their Relation to Prevailing Legal Conceptions in the 16th and 17th Centuries," unpublished Doctor of Theology Thesis, Harvard, 1963.

26 See for instance A. Castro, The Structure of Spanish History, Princeton, N. J., Princeton Univ. Press, 1954; and also, for a Catholic analysis, very inter esting from this point of view, N. Daniel-Rops, The Protestant Reformation, N. Y., 1961; idem, The Catholic Reformation, N. Y. 1961.

27 On the importance of the relations between the motivational and the organizational aspects of the development of roles see R. N. Bellah, "Reflections on the Protestant Ethic Analogy in Asia," The Journal of Social Issues, XIX (1963), pp. 52-60.

28 See S. Burrell, op. cit.

29 The influence of Protestantism on science has constituted another continuous focus of research and controversy derived from the Protestant Ethic thesis. See for instance, B. K. Merton, "Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England," Osiris, IV (1938). L. S. Teuer, The Scientific Intellectual, New York, 1963. H. van Gelder, The Two Reformations in the Sixteenth Century, The Hague, 1961. K. Rabb, "Puritanism and the Rise of Experimental Science in England," Journal of World History, XVII (1962). H. F. Kearney, "Puritanism, Capitalism and the Scientific Revolution," Past and Present, XXVIII (1964), pp. 81-101, and the other articles in this issue.

30 L. Stone's review of C. Hill's Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution in The New York Review of Books, August 26, 1965, p. 10.

31 On their situations as minorities, see among others W. C. Scoville, "The Huguenots and the Diffusion of Technology," Journal of Political Economy, IX (1950), pp. 294-311; and E. Wayne-Nafziger, "The Mennonite Ethic in the Weberian Framework," Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, second series, II (1965), No. 3.

32 Of special interest in this respect are the developments in the Netherlands, the relation between Protestants and the development of the Dutch nation. See P. Geyl, The Netherlands in the 17th Century, London, 1961/5; P. Geyl, Noord en Zuid, Utrecht-Antwerpen, 1960, esp. pp. 150-173; I. Schöffer, "De Nederlan dse revolutie," in Zeven Revolution, Amsterdam, J. H. de Bussy, 1964, pp. 9-29; I. Schöffer, "Protestantism in Flux during the Revolt of the Netherlands," in J. S. Bromley & E. H. Kossman (eds.), Britain and the Netherlands, Groningen, II (1964), pp. 67-84; and D. J. Roorda, "The Ruling Classes in Holland in the Seventeenth Century," ibid., pp. 109-133.

33 See for instance Alfred L. Drummond, German Protestantism since Luther, London, Epworth Press, 1951; John T. MacNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism, New York, Oxford University Press, 1954; Gerhard Ritter, "Das 16. Jahrhundert als weltgeschichtliche Epoche," Archiv für Geschichte der Refor mation, XXXV (1938); and Die Neugestaltung Europas im 16. Jahrhundert, Berlin, Druckhaus Tempelhof, 1950, ch. 3, esp. pp. 133-170; Alfred Adam, "Die nationale Kirche bei Luther," Archiv für Geschichte der Reformation, XXXV (1938), pp. 30-62.

34 Hajalmar Holmquist, "Kirche und Staat im evangelischen Schweden," Festgabe für Karl Müller, Tübingen, J.C.B. Mohr, 1922, pp. 209-2077; Heinz H. Schrey, "Geistliches und weltliches Regiment in der schwedischen Reformation," Archiv für Geschichte der Reformation, XLII (1951), pp. 146-159; Georg Schweiger, Die Reformation in den Nordischen Ländern, Munich, Kozel Verlag, 1962; and G. Ritter, Die Neugestaltung cit.

35 Christine R. Kayser, "Calvinism and German Political Life," unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Radcliffe, 1961.