Max Weber’s (1864-1920) sociology is the foundation of scientific sociology of religion in a sense of typological and objective understanding. Rejecting Karl Marx’s evolutionary law of class society, or Emile Durkheim’s sustained law of moral society, Weber established the understanding sociology of the subjective meaning of religious action or inaction. To make such knowledge of the understanding objective, he founded the methodology of the ideal type and the elective affinity of causal relationships.

Weber located a positive relationship between the Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism. Western capitalism, according to Weber, assumed its shape because it was supported by a certain belief system, namely, the “Protestant ethic”. Weber argued that the Protestant ethic is closely associated with the spirit of capitalism. In order to bring out this inter-relationship. Weber constructed ideal types of both, the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. The main elements of ideal type of spirit of capitalism identified by weber are

Capitalists desire wealth not for enjoyment or luxurious living. They wanted it so that they could use it to make more wealth.

Capitalism is an economic system which aims at the unlimited accumulated of profit through the rational organisation of production.

The worker was a means to an end, the end being profit.

The attitude towards work was that it should be done well not because one had to do it, but because it carried an intrinsic reward. The popular American saying “Anything that’s worth doing is worth doing well”, sums up this attitude. Hard work and efficient work was an end in itself.

Capitalism stresses individualism, innovation and the relentless pursuit of profit.

Let us now try to understand what Weber meant by the Protestant ethic, in other words, the major tenets or principles of the Protestant religion.

Let us first clarify a few historical details. What is Protestantism? As the name suggests, it is a religion of protest. It arose in the 16th century in Europe in the period known as the Reformation. It founding fathers like Martin Luther and John Calvin broke away from the Catholic Church. Greed, corruption and vice had gripped the Church. The Protestant sects that sprint up all over Europe tried to recapture the lost spirit of the Church. They stressed simplicity, austerity and devotion. Calvinism, founded by the Frenchman John Calvin, was one such sect. The followers of Calvin England were known as the Puritans. They migrated to the continent of North America and were the founders of the America nation. Weber observed that in the West, it was by and large the Protestants who had made greatest progress in education and employment. They were the top bureaucrats, the most skilled technical workers and the leading industrialists.Was there something in their religion that inspired them to make such progress? Weber thought so, and attempted to prove it. The brand of capitalism that Weber was most interested in was Calvinism. Weber then identified elements of ideal type of protestant ethics.

God, said Calvin, was all-powerful, transcendent. His Divine Will was unknowable. It could not be understood simply because it was God’s Will!

At the core of Calvinism is the belief that certain persons are chosen or ‘elected’ by God to enter Heaven while the rest are demand. We cannot bride God to give us a place in Heaven through prays or sacrifice. As this Will is unknowable, we cannot change it.

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According to weber, Protestant ethic, (particularly the Calvinist ethic) is a rationalisation of traditional Christian doctrine, is the way in which it reconciled outer worldly aspiration with the pursuit of this-worldly material gain. Drawing attention to the precise ways in which the pursuit of personal religious salvation is made to coincide with the achievement of material prosperity and power. Weber argues that it was this ‘heroic’ rationalisation that gave birth to capitalism. The most important rationalisation is the development of a ‘this-worldly’ asceticism-a foregoing of consumption of ‘the pleasures of the flesh’, in favour of saving and accumulation. Through it the believer assures himself of being include amongst those born to be saved, in a religious sense. Weber argues that the rationalism embedded in the Protestant ethic helped to further develop the material condition of modern capitalism

Imagine the insecurity of the follower of this stern religion! He did not know whether he was elected or damned. He could not turn to a priest for solace and help because no mortal man could understand God. What could he do to cope with the anxiety of an uncertain destiny? How could he prove to himself that he was one of the chosen?

He could do so by prospering on Earth. His material prosperity would be the symbol or token of his election. He would work for the glory of God.

Weber’s Comparative Studies On Religion

You have just studied the link that Weber tries to establish between religious ethics on the one hand and economic behaviour on the other. Let us now see how Weber further tries to substantiate or validate this idea with the help of comparative studies of various world religions. Now, we shall describe Weber’s studies of Confucianism in ancient. China, Hinduism in ancient India and Judaism in ancient Palestine (West Asia).

Ancient China had a well-developed economy. Trade, commerce, finance and manufacture were quite advanced. Despite the presence of these material conditions, Western-style of capitalism did not develop there. Why? According to Weber, the Confucian ethic would not permit this. Confucian ideas can be summed up us follows: Belief in the order of the Universe, the cosmos,Man should aid at being in harmony with nature and the cosmos, Behaviour is to be guided by tradition. All wisdom lies in the past,  amily and kin ties and obligations were never to be neglected. he stress on harmony, traditionalism and family obligations are quite contradictory to the relentless pursuit of profit for its own sake. Indeed, the “spirit of capitalism” would probably have been considered to be bad manners.

Judaism is the religion of the Jews who originally inhabited the land of Palestine in West Asia. Judaism is the oldest of the monotheistic religions-a religion that speaks of one, all-powerful and almighty God. The Jews believed themselves to be the chosen ones of God or “Gee”. Their prophets united them in the belief that they were the chosen ones of God and must help to establish God’s Kingdom on Earth. Judaism, unlike Confucianism and Hinduism speaks of an ethic on mastery over the environment, not harmony. Judaism, says Weber, could have generated the “spirit of capitalism”. However, certain historical forces prevented this. The Exodus or mass migration of the Jews from their homeland due to persecution left them scattered all over the world. Their economic participation was restricted to money-lending, which they did very successfully.

While dealing with the Religion of India Weber expressed a strict negative attitude towards the possibility of rational capitalism existing within the ethos of Hinduism. To him, it is extremely unlikely that the organisation of modern capitalism could have originated in a caste-based society like India. Nor could capitalism imported from the West hope to flourish in India.  India like China was economically fairly advanced. You probably know that ancient India made valuable contributions to science. Manufactured goods found worldwide markets and trade links were established in various parts of the world. But Hinduism, says Weber, did not provide a suitable ethic for the development of capitalism. the ideas of “karma”, “dharma” and “punarjanma” (the cycle of births and rebirths) made Indians defeatists, fatalists. Weber feels that Hindus have no motivation to improve their economic condition. Hindus, says Weber, would not consider it worthwhile to put in the soft of hard work that capitalism demanded. Hinduism preaches “other-worldly asceticism”. The material world is de-emphasised. Material prosperity is not given importance as it is temporary and illusory. So, as we can see, mere material conditions like finance, trade and technology are not enough to promote capitalism. India and China had both of these, yet the value-systems of these societies were such that the pursuit of wealth for own sake and rational organisation of work to achieve this purpose did not make sense. It did not fit in with the ethos or the ideals of these societies.

Weber’s work on Christianity and Islam could not completed. His death in 1920 prevented him from realising his plan of putting together his findings on the great world religions and using them to find an answer regarding the birth and growth of capitalism.

Critical Evaluation

Weber “elaborated a set of categories, such as types of prophecy, the idea of charisma (spiritual power), routinization, and other categories, which became tools to deal with the comparative material; he was thus the real founder of comparative sociology.” 1 Weber holds that there is no universal law of society as supposed in natural science, or the law of history which determines the course of the dynamic mechanically. The goal of Weber’s sociology of religion is to understand religious action from the subjective meaning of the actor rationally and also emphatically; it is not to establish the laws of religion and society, or to extract the essence of religious action. Or the goal is not even to formulate and evaluate the social function of religion as Marx did that religion was the opium of the mass or as Durkheim did that religion was what made moral society hold together.

Weber’s study of religion brings out the role of prophets. He also shows how religious beliefs are connected with particular strata of society. Thus Confucianism is primarily connected with the ruling class, the ‘mandarins’, Hinduism is linked with the Brahmin orthodoxy trying the perpetuate the caste system; and Judaism is linked with a discontented peasantry striving to overcome oppression.

Weber’s work on religion and economy has often been subjected to criticism. Some scholars feel that he has concentrated very selectively on certain aspects of religious ethics and interpreted them very narrowly so that they may fit in with his theory.

For instance, in his studies on the Hindu ethic, Weber has seen only one aspect of the Hindu ethic and has over-emphasised the fatalistic and passive aspects of it. Some scholars and students would argue that the notions of “karma” and “dharma” actually spur individuals to act, to perform their duties, to live up to their obligations. It is pointed out that the concept of calling which forms the very foundation of the spirit of capitalism is also prevalent in Hinduism. The principle in the Bhagwad Gita of doing one’s duty without thinking of benefit is similar to the doctrine of calling which is the focal point of material progress in West.

Milton Singer has presented a functional equivalent of the Protestant ethic in India in his study of the leading industrialists of the city of Madras. To him caste background and tradition may equally be fitted for the industrial development in India. Caste based division of labour has been used successfully in the specialisation of industrial workers. Singer observed that through the process of “compartmentalisation”, many industrialists kept their business obligations and ritual obligations separate or in distinct compartments. Hence there was no conflict between an individual’s role as a businessman, on the one hand, and a religious person on the other.

According to Milton Singer if capitalism is to be developed in India then it must not be an aping of the west that destroys the traditional way of life. Capitalism in India can rather develop within the given cultural norms and institutions of our society.