According to Weber, Protestant ideals were a very important contribution to modern day capitalism. As we discussed in class, other religions (Catholicism in particular) often looked down on greed and the accumulation of wealth. As the protestant religion grew, so did the mindset that it is not a bad thing to accumulate wealth. Another key aspect of his argument is the idea that once these protestant qualities emerge, eventually the religion would no longer be needed, and instead be replaced by the “spirit of capitalism”, which he calls it. This spirit in turn creates a type of problem, and Weber acknowledges this. The problem is in the idea that the spirit of capitalism will overtake the spirit of humanity, or something to that extent. Meaning, the capitalist culture looks entirely different sociologically than society was before the spirit of capitalism became so strong. This is a threat because wealth, credit, and the acquisition of an abundance of money, which are all at the core of capitalism, could ultimately become more important than values, which religions prior to this movement focused on.
I was very interested that something that came from a religion, would ultimately, in the end, render that religion obscolete, and that these capitalist values would in fact replace the religious values that the reformation was based upon. I can understand what he means, but I felt it was very interesting from the point that the means of getting to the spirit of capitalism would be the protestant reformation, which would then be disregarded, and all we would have left was the end result, the spirit of capitalism. It was also very interesting that he felt people would be stuck in a cage wherever there values put them, but it turns out that other religions as well would change their opinions, or so it seems, about the rightness or wrongness of accumulating wealth.
I cannot help but think that this protestant ideal, which was a major contributor to the spirit of capitalism, actually in a way hurt our society. I understand that capitalism has made our nation what it is today, but I also think with the loss of certain values comes a downfall to our society as well. I mean we see the greed in our country everyday and I cannot help but think that the protestant ideas helped create this greed.
I think the original thoughts behind the beginnings of this "Protestant ethic" in relation to capitalism were more related to the idea that it is good to use your talents, to work and to earn what you deserve for the glory of God. Weber may also have mentioned that the society's belief in religion's value is a continuum, and that those who are rich think less of the principle that accumulating wealth for personal gain is negative. It's also important to remember that it is the rich who write the rules of religion in most situations -- Catholic services used to be given exclusively in Latin, which most of the common people couldn't understand. So yes, maybe the protestant ethic did make greed a bigger problem -- but in its original intent it meant more to give glory to God, and we can't forget that as Weber indicates, greed has been a human problem for as long as we've been around. It's interesting to think about though, for sure.
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