Edited With An Introduction By Robert W. Green
FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “Did the Protestant Reformation, and especially its Calvinist branch, have a decisive influence upon the development of modern capitalism? For more than half a century this question has been the focal point of a scholarly controversy which had its beginning in 1904-5 with the publication by the famous German sociologist, Max Weber, of two articles entitled “Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus” [The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]. Together with a supplementary article, “Die protestantische Sekten und der Geist des Kapitalismus” [The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism], which appeared in 1906, these articles, with some additional footnotes, now constitute the first studies in Max Weber's collected essays on the sociology of religion….Almost immediately following their first appearance, these articles attracted the interest of scholars in several different fields because, in its various aspects, the Weber hypothesis cut across the areas of a number of separate scholarly disciplines. Since Weber was himself a sociollogist, and in this instance he seemed to be attempting to apply a sociological method to an historical problem, both sociologists and historians became concerned. Because capitalism was involved, economic historians were aroused; and the role Weber assigned to Protestantism drew the attention of both Catholic and Protestant theologians. Some of these scholars attacked Weber’s position; some supported it; some seemed willing to accept a modified or cautiously qualified version of it. Beyond that, however, if one may judge by what they have written, the authors who commented upon Weber’s work, whether supporting or attacking it, seem frequently to have misunderstood or misinterpreted either Weber’s method or his conclusions or both…”
Boston. D. C. Heath And Company. Problems In European Civilization. 1959. 132p.
