The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism

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"The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism" (German: Die protestantischen Sekten und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is an essay written by Max Weber.

## Summary

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The essay is based on Weber's observations of American businessmen in 1904, during a trip he took to visit relatives in Ohio and North Carolina, and to do research in the libraries of American universities that had Protestant affiliations. Despite the strict Separation of Church and State in the US, businessmen never failed to ask (casually) about each other's religious affiliations. Weber eventually realized that this odd custom (from a European point of view) acted as a kind of "credit check".[1]

This worked for two reasons. First, membership in a Protestant sect was voluntary (unlike the state-sponsored Churches in Europe), and they only accepted members who had demonstrated a certain standard of behavior. Any member who failed to behave as expected would face pressure to reform, or lose his membership. Therefore, any member in good standing could be trusted in business (regardless of which sect he belonged to).[2]

Second, the Protestant sects were run by their members, and the pastor was their employee (unlike state-sponsored Churches, where the pastor might be a political appointee). If a pastor became lax or corrupt, the members could replace him. Congregations also insisted that their pastors should preach ethics, rather than the finer points of religious dogma (which they considered to be less important than ethical behavior).[3]

As the influence of religion declined (particularly in the larger cities), this function had been taken up by secular businessmen's organizations. Again, these organizations only accepted members who demonstrated a certain standard of behavior, and that standard was enforced by the members rather than the hierarchy. Traveling salesmen would always be sure to wear a lapel pin indicating membership in one organization or another, because without such an affiliation, people wouldn't trust them. Joining such an organization was often a sign that an immigrant was becoming assimilated into American culture.[4]

Both the religious and secular versions of this phenomenon were already dying out in the larger cities. In his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber theorized that having a large number of businessmen who could be counted on to behave ethically was important to the growth of Capitalism, and that this had its origins in the Protestant Reformation (particularly in Calvinism and its spiritual descendants), although it had later become secularized.[5]

## References

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1. ^ Protestant Sects and The Spirit of Capitalism, p1.
2. ^ Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism, p3.
3. ^ Protestant Sects and The Spirit of Capitalism, p7-8.
4. ^ Protestant Sects and The Spirit of Capitalism, p7.
5. ^ Protestant Sects and The Spirit of Capitalism, p9-14.

## External links

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* Online ebook of The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism (Cached by the Internet Archive)

* v
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Max Weber

* Bibliography
* List of speeches
* Liberalism
* German politics

Books|

* Zur Geschichte der Handelsgesellschaften im Mittelalter (1889)
* Roman Agrarian History and Its Significance for Public and Private Law (1891)
* Condition of Farm Labour in Eastern Germany (1892)
* The Stock Exchange (1896)
* The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905)
* The Economic Ethics of the World Religions
* The Religion of China (1915)
* The Religion of India (1916)
* Ancient Judaism (1921)
* Sociology of Religion (1920)
* The City (1921)
* Economy and Society (1922)

Essays|

* "The 'Objectivity' of Knowledge in Social Science and Social Policy" (1904)
* "The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1904)
* "The Rejection and the Meaning of the World" (1916)

Lectures|

* "Science as a Vocation" (1917)
* "Politics as a Vocation" (1919)
* General Economic History (1923)

Concepts|

* Bureaucracy
* Charisma
* Disenchantment
* Ethic of ultimate ends
* Ideal type
* Inner-worldly asceticism
* Iron cage
* Life chances
* Methodological individualism
* Monopoly on violence
* Patrimonialism
* Protestant work ethic
* Rationalisation
* Social action
* Affectional
* Traditional
* Instrumental
* Value-rational
* Three-component theory of stratification
* Tripartite classification of authority
* Charismatic
* Rational-legal
* Traditional
* Value-freedom
* Verstehen

People|

* Max Weber Sr. (father)
* Alfred Weber (brother)
* Marianne Weber (wife)

Related|

* Verein für Socialpolitik
* Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik
* German Sociological Association
* German Democratic Party
* Max Weber Foundation

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