Inner-worldly asceticism

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Very subective representation full of swurlows. At least Weber's primary text should be quoted.

The inner-worldly asceticism of Calvinist -influenced Protestantism is a possible cause of the profit ethos of modern capitalism for Max Weber .

Until the corresponding attitudes arose, the main striving was still directed towards the satisfaction of traditional needs; work and trade were intended to serve this purpose. Taking on more work for increased funding was usually as unpopular as it was avoided.

Proceeding from this, Weber turned to the professional term, which, like the perception of wealth, was subject to rigorous evolution. While (wage) work and commercial activity were a necessary evil in the early modern age, a redefinition began with Martin Luther that brings the secular profession close to an almost divine calling . This went hand in hand with the generally tighter piety at home, which Luther demanded as a counterpoint to the rituals of the Catholic official church , which were perceived as lax and bigoted . The devotion out of habit was replaced by a devotion out of passion (after Karl Marx in: derselbe und Friedrich Engels , "Über Religion", Berlin, 1958).

However, it would be a mistake to deduce from this that Luther laid the ideological foundations for Western capitalism through his definition of his profession. Rather, it must be stated that Luther, through his well-known polemics against self-sufficient wealth , remained just as value-rational and traditional as in relation to the actually existing political conditions. According to Weber, the Protestant sects of the 16th and 17th centuries such as Puritans , Quakers and the Calvinists were more important for the further development of the capitalist social order . The last-mentioned religious community in particular, which originally appeared in Switzerland, shaped the Western understanding of priorities and principles in human life with its doctrine of predestination .

While many other Christian groups consider the comprehensive grace of God to be the supreme principle of their religion , the Calvinists set themselves upon the assumption that a pre- creation grace choice took place. Only certain people are therefore selected to enter the kingdom of God. Worldly success and a pious life should be taken as a sign of this . But since no one could really know who was carrying the grace of God, the members tried to live a life that was as strictly ordered as possible and regarded wealth and constant re- investments as signs of a godly life. As a result, wealth could become an end in itself, and since the Calvinists also led an extremely ascetic life, their assets and liabilities continued to increase and , whether chosen by God or not, they could establish themselves as an economic power factor.

The traditionally oriented competition only had the choice between withdrawing from business or adapting to this way of life. In this way, developing capitalism received the last necessary development boost, the new norms and customs allowed capital and productive forces to develop in unprecedented proportions.

This development was also accompanied by the already mentioned professional term, which now contained an intrinsic component even more than before. The psychological habitus created or enforced by the Calvinists and similar groups attributed a critical function to gainful employment, whether physical, mental or commercial, in the definition of the individual as well as of society as a whole.