3.2b Religion and the Development of Capitalism
Social theorists have argued that religion played a role in the development of capitalism (see Chapter 6) and its persistence. Max Weber (1864-1920) was a German sociologist who sought to understand the relationship between the economy and religion. Specifically, he focused on showing how Protestant religious beliefs and practices contributed to the growth of capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system in which market competition and the pursuit of profit are central. In capitalist economies, private individuals and companies, not the government or the public, own the means of production—land, labor, and capital.
Photo 3.7
Max Weber
Weber ([1904] 1958) argued that the Protestant Reformation spurred the development of capitalism. The Protestant Reformation occurred in the sixteenth century. It began when German priest and theologian Martin Luther published his 95 Theses (1517). 95 Theses criticized many worldly practices of the Catholic Church. The Protestant Reformation that followed resulted in many groups separating from the Catholic Church in protest, hence the name Protestant.
One of these groups was called the Calvinists, led by the French theologian John Calvin. Calvin offered an alternative understanding of how a person can enter heaven. For Catholics, believers can confess their sins and perform penance to secure a place in heaven. In contrast, Calvin interpreted predestination in the Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) to mean that God decides who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, regardless of the individual’s behavior. The Calvinists also promoted the idea that work was a means of serving God. It was no longer sufficient to work to only meet one’s needs. Instead, people worked in response to a calling by God. Early Protestants, then, used financial success as a sign of chosen status. As a result, they worked to acquire money, which they reinvested to grow their wealth, a key feature of capitalism. Protestants did not create capitalism, but according to Weber, Protestant beliefs and practices helped it grow.