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The Protestant Ethic And Spirit Of Capitalism

1312 Words6 Pages

The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 2007) evaluates the relationship between the ethics of Protestantism and the development of modern capitalism. In this essay, the ideals of Max Weber and his views on the Protestant Ethic along with the Spirit of Capitalism will be discussed, thus these two concepts will be defined and the link between them will be critically examined. The elements of Protestantism will be highlighted as well as how they relate to the changing world of work.

Protestantism is perceived as a worldly "calling" which applies a religious form to all acts. It is a division of Christian faith and includes all churches outside the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church. Protestant Reformation is one of the principles affirmed by Protestant churches (Weber, 2007, P. xii). Weber (2007) explores the link between how being Protestant and being involved in business and industry come together and then goes on to evaluate religion as one of the main causes of modern economics. He brings focus to the branch of Calvinism through the concept of protestant ethics, as he believes that Calvinism is the driving force behind capitalist entrepreneurs (Weber, 2007, P. xiii). Calvinists believe in predestination, therefore who is saved and damned, has already been decided upon. With this development, a need to know whether one would be saved or damned arose and so clues were searched for in order to verify an answer. Due to this phenomenon, Calvinists began to

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