The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

In this chapter, Weber continues to track the development of a Protestant work ethic, tracing its connections with the spirit of capitalism that Weber identified in Chapter 2. The chapter opens with a discussion of English Puritanism, a branch of Protestantism that “grew out of Calvinism” and that Weber argues was one of the Protestant branches more focused on the importance of work (103).

To prove this point, Weber focuses on the writings of 17th-century English theologian Richard Baxter, whose ideas focused on bringing morality into one’s daily life. In some ways, Baxter appears to be critical of the rich, taking up ideas in the New Testament that vilified greed. However, Weber argues that Baxter’s concern is not with the actual earning of large amounts of money, but rather “the resting upon one’s possessions and the enjoyment of wealth” (104). Baxter believed that individuals should not live a life of rest or leisure, which would instead come to them in Heaven. Instead, Baxter advocated that individuals should devote every moment of their lives to furthering God’s will and living an ascetic life according to God’s wishes. The primary way that Baxter thought individuals could achieve such a life was through the act of toiling in one’s labor or vocational calling. Baxter believed that a focus on work could help individuals avoid succumbing to “all sexual temptations” and live a life devoted to ascetism (106). However, Baxter also saw continued dedication to one’s work, even when one had earned enough money to survive, as fulfilling God’s plan. Such an idea follows from the teachings of the Apostle Paul, who stated that “if anyone will not work, let him not eat” (106). Baxter believed that this teaching applied even to those who had earned their riches from working and taught that to eat without continuing to work was sinful.

Weber argues that teachings like Baxter’s helped to prime followers to be amenable to the conditions for capitalism’s development. As Weber discussed in Chapter 2, capitalism often required individuals to let go of past notions of economic traditionalism; capitalism’s growth hinged on individuals seeking to increase their personal wealth without limit, as well as devoting themselves fully to their work. Protestant teachings like Baxter’s helped to eradicate individuals’ economic traditionalism by teaching that work was a moral good in and of itself. Embodying the moral life, then, was “the dispassionate, ‘self-made man’ of the middle class” (109). Further, they advocated that individuals should adopt “an ascetic organization of life” in which every aspect of their daily life was organized toward working and avoiding pleasure (112).

While such ideas were first deeply founded in the theological goal of achieving salvation, Weber notes that the Protestant work ethic slowly became secularized and spread throughout society, leading to the development of a general “utilitarian orientation to the world” (119). One of the chief effects of Protestantism was the development of a “middle-class vocational ethos” that began to permeate society (120), and whose effects can still be felt on workers today. Weber argues that the asceticism that characterized Protestants has become detached from its religious origins and is now the general moral ethos of capitalism, which trains individuals to devote themselves to accumulating wealth while avoiding taking pleasure in it. Weber ends by noting that the societal obsession with possessions and wealth has become a “steel-hard casing” that in many ways limits the individual’s personal growth (124). However, he suggests the possibility that one day there might be another transformation in society, with “entirely new prophets or a mighty rebirth of ancient ideas” (124), like the Protestant Reformation before it.