The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

belief in the double decree, is given in the introduction to the various extracts from his works printed in the Works of the Puritan Divines (by Jenkyn). His attempt to combine universal redemption and personal election satisfied no one. For us it is important only that he even then held to personal election, i.e. to the most important point for ethics in the doctrine of predestination. On the other hand, his weakening of the forensic view of redemption is important as being suggestive of baptism. ↩

Tracts and sermons by Thomas Adams, John Howe, Matthew Henry, J. Janeway, Stuart Charnock, Baxter, Bunyan, have been collected in the ten volumes of the Works of the Puritan Divines (London, 1845⁠–⁠8), though the choice is often somewhat arbitrary. Editions of the works of Bailey, Sedgwick, and Hoornbeek have already been referred to. ↩

We could just as well have included Voet and other continental representatives of worldly asceticism. Brentano’s view that the whole development was purely Anglo-Saxon is quite wrong. My choice is motivated mainly (though not exclusively) by the wish to present the ascetic movement as much as possible in the second half of the seventeenth century, immediately before the change to utilitarianism. It has unfortunately been impossible, within the limits of this sketch, to enter upon the fascinating task of presenting the characteristics of ascetic Protestantism through the medium of the biographical literature; the Quakers would in this connection be particularly important, since they are relatively little known in Germany. ↩

For one might just as well take the writings of Gijsbert Voet, the proceedings of the Huguenot Synods, or the Dutch Baptist literature. Sombart and Brentano have unfortunately taken just the ebionitic parts of Baxter, which I myself have strongly emphasized, to confront me with the undoubted capitalistic backwardness of his doctrines. But (1) one must know this whole literature thoroughly in order to use it correctly, and (2) not overlook the fact that I have attempted to show how, in spite of its anti-mammonistic doctrines, the spirit of this ascetic religion nevertheless, just as in the monastic communities, gave birth to economic rationalism because it placed a premium on what was most important for it: the fundamentally ascetic rational motives. That fact alone is under discussion and is the point of this whole essay. ↩

Similarly in Calvin, who was certainly no champion of bourgeois wealth (see the sharp attacks on Venice and Antwerp in Commentarius in Jesaiam, III, 140a, 308a). ↩

Saints’ Everlasting Rest, chaps. X, XII. Compare Bailey (Praxis Pietatis, p. 182) or Matthew Henry (The Worth of the Soul, Works of the Puritan Divines, p. 319). “Those that are eager in pursuit of worldly wealth despise their Soul, not only because the Soul is neglected and the body preferred before it, but because it is employed in these pursuits” (Psalm 127:2). On the same page, however, is the remark to be cited below about the sinfulness of all waste of time, especially in recreations. Similarly in almost the whole religious literature of English-Dutch Puritanism. See, for instance, Hoornbeek’s (Theologia practica, L, X, chap. 18, 18) Phillipics against avaritia. This writer is also affected by sentimental pietistic influences. See the praise of tranquillitas animi which is much more pleasing to God than the sollicitudo of this world. Also Bailey, referring to the well-known passage in Scripture, is of the opinion that “A rich man is not easily saved” (op. cit., p. 182). The Methodist catechisms also warn against “gathering treasure on this earth.” For Pietism this is quite obvious, as also for the Quakers. Compare Barclay (Apology for the True Christian Divinity, p. 517), “… and therefore beware of such temptations as to use their callings as an engine to be richer.” ↩

For not wealth alone, but also the impulsive pursuit of it (or what passed as such) was condemned with similar severity. In the Netherlands the South Holland Synod of 1574 declared, in reply to a question, that moneylenders should not be admitted to communion even though the business was permitted by law; and the Deventer Provincial Synod of 1598 (Art. 24) extended this to the employees of moneylenders. The Synod of Gorichem in 1606 prescribed severe and humiliating conditions under which the wives of usurers might be admitted, and the question was discussed as late as 1644 and 1657 whether Lombards should be admitted to communion (this against Brentano, who cites his own Catholic ancestors, although foreign traders and bankers have existed in the whole European and Asiatic world for thousands of years). Gijsbert Voet (Disputatio theologica, IV, 1667, “de usuris,” p. 665) still wanted to exclude the Trapezites (Lombards, Piedmontese). The same was true of the Huguenot Synods. This type of capitalistic classes were not the typical representatives of the philosophy or the type of conduct with which we are concerned. They were also not new as compared with antiquity or the Middle Ages. ↩

Developed in detail in the tenth chapter of the Saints’ Everlasting Rest. He who should seek to rest in the shelter of possessions which God gives, God strikes even in this life. A self-satisfied enjoyment of wealth already gained is almost always a symptom of moral degradation. If we had everything which we could have in this world, would that be all we hoped for? Complete satisfaction of desires is not attainable on earth because God’s will has decreed it should not be so. ↩

Christian Directory, I, pp. 375⁠–⁠6. “It is for action that God maintaineth us and our activities; work is the moral as well as the natural end of power.⁠ ⁠… It is action that God is most served and honoured by.⁠ ⁠… The public welfare or