Max Weber Revisited: The “Protestant Ethic” and the Puritan Experience of Order

1966 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Little

The accuracy of Max Weber's grasp of Puritan religious experience has persistently been called into question by the critics of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber is alleged either to have misunderstood the sources of Puritanism, or to have overlooked the real character of Puritan belief and action, or to have misconstrued its social significance. In short, Weber is generally accused of failing to assess correctly the causes, content, and implications of Puritanism.

2005 ◽  
pp. 145-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Ristic

In his essay ?The Protestant Ethic? Max Weber explains the specific economic development and the foundation of capitalism in Western Europe due to the appearance of protestant sects and the ?spirit of capitalism?. By doing so, Weber assigns religion a significant place among the factors of social and economic development. Taking Weber?s theory and argumentation as a starting point, this article drafts a thesis on ?orthodox ethic? and determines its role in the development of the ?spirit of capitalism? in orthodox countries. For that purpose this article compares political-historical circumstances on the territory of the Western and Eastern Church on one, and pictures the theological-philosophical basis of both Protestantism and Orthodoxy on the other side.


2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052092482
Author(s):  
Senlin Yu ◽  
Yujing Wang

From 1968 to 2018, there are 21 Chinese versions of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism ( PESC) published in China. This essay makes a profile of the Chinese translations of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, analyzes the reasons for the retranslations, and summarizes the major problems in these translations. The authors argue that, although there are some problems in the existing Chinese versions, the Chinese translations of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism play important roles in the reception and studies of Max Weber in China, and the deepening of Max Weber studies in return inspires more and better Chinese versions of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The Chinese translations contribute not only to the study of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but also to the spread of Max Weber’s thoughts in China.


1931 ◽  
Vol 41 (161) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
A. L. Rowse ◽  
Talcott Parsons ◽  
R. H. Tawney

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Löwy

AbstractBenjamin's fragment 'Capitalism as Religion', written in 1921, was only published several decades after his death. Its aim is to show that capitalism is a cultic religion, without mercy or truce, leading humanity to the 'house of despair'. It is an astonishing document, directly based on Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but – in ways akin to Ernst Bloch or Erich Fromm – transforming Weber's 'value-free' analysis into a ferocious anticapitalist argument, probably inspired by Gustav Landauer's romantic and libertarian socialism. This article analyses Benjamin's fragment and explores its relationship to Weber's thesis, as well as to the tradition of romantic anticapitalism.


Worldview ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
James Young ◽  
Marjorie Hope

In the closing pages of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904) Max Weber mused on the shape of things to come: No one knows who wilt live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or if neither, mechanized petrification, embellished with a sort of self-importance. For of the last stage of this cultural development, it might be said: “Specialists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.”


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