Rationalisation, the ‘world religions’, and western capitalism

Abstract

Weber collectively entitles his studies of Judaism and the religions of China and India, ‘The economic ethics of the world religions’. The title is indicative of the main thrust of Weber's interests, and manifests a line of immediate continuity with the themes of his earlier essay on Calvinism and the spirit of western capitalism. But in fact these subsequent studies embrace a much broader range of social and historical phenomena than is suggested by the relatively modest heading with which Weber prefaces them. The relationship between the content of religious beliefs and the forms of economic activity which characterise a given social order is often indirect, and is influenced by other institutions within that order. Weber stresses that his studies of the world religions do not in any way constitute a systematic ‘typology’ of religion. On the other hand, they do not constitute a purely historical work. They are ‘typological’ in the sense that they consider what is typically important in the historical realisations of religious ethics. This is important for the connection of religions with the great contrasts of economic mentalities. Other aspects will be neglected; these presentations do not claim to offer a well-rounded picture of world religions. More particularly, Weber states, the influence of religious ethics upon economic organisation is to be considered above all from one specific standpoint: in terms of their connections with the advance or retardation of rationalism such as has come to dominate economic life in the West.