Protestant Ethic Research Articles

THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SPORTS: HISTORICAL INFLUENCE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CHINESE SPORTS VALUES

Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism theorizes the Protestant ethic, providing a foundation for exploring the formation of Protestant ethics through the Reformation and how it shaped modern sportsmanship. This study discusses the potential impact of Protestant ethics on China's sports modernization and suggests how Chinese sports development can draw upon Protestant values to enhance sportsmanship and cultural growth. Finally, it proposes a distinctive sports ethics with Chinese characteristics adapted to China’s current context. KEYWORDS: Protestant Ethic, Modern Sports Development, Sports Ethics, Cultural Values

Psychological predictors of socioeconomic resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from machine learning.

What predicts cross-country differences in the recovery of socioeconomic activity from the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, we examined how quickly countries' socioeconomic activity bounced back to normalcy from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic based on residents' attitudes, values, and beliefs as measured in the World Values Survey. We trained nine preregistered machine learning models to predict the rate at which various socioeconomic metrics (e.g., public transportation occupancy, cinema attendance) recovered from their COVID-19 lows based on the World Values Survey. All models had high predictive accuracy when presented with out-of-sample data (rs ≥ .83). Feature importance analyses identified five psychological predictors that most strongly predicted socioeconomic recovery from COVID-19: religiosity, liberal social attitudes, the value of independence, obedience to authority, and the Protestant work ethic. Although past research has established the role of religiosity, liberalism, and independence in predicting resilience, it has not yet considered obedience to authority or the Protestant work ethic. Thus, the current research suggests new directions for future work on resilience that may not be apparent from either a deductive or an inductive approach. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Book Review: Saving the Protestant Ethic: Creative Class Evangelicalism and the Crisis of Work by Andrew Lynn

Book Review: <i>Saving the Protestant Ethic: Creative Class Evangelicalism and the Crisis of Work</i> by Andrew Lynn

A Review on “The Spirit of Digital Capitalism”

In The Spirit of Digital Capitalism, Jennifer Huberman explores the impact of digital capitalism on human experience and social life. Drawing on Max Weber's seminal work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Huberman seeks to uncover the "spirit" of digital capitalism. Just as Weber linked the development of capitalism to the Protestant work ethic, Huberman examines how digital capitalism shapes contemporary individuals and societal structures. Digital capitalism, fueled by technological innovation and the rapid rise of digital platforms, has created a new economic and cultural order. This order has profoundly altered how people work, entertain themselves, and interact with one another. Huberman argues that in this new system, individuals are not only consumers but also products whose data is collected and commodified. In digital capitalism, data becomes as valuable a resource as labor. Huberman emphasizes that digital capitalism shapes not just economic processes but also identities and desires. Social media platforms, for instance, guide users' interests and emotions, collecting personal data for commercial purposes. Through this process, individuals' subjective experiences become increasingly dependent on digital technologies. Huberman’s goal is to reveal the spirit of this digital order, showing how it integrates individuals into not only economic but also social and cultural practices. Ultimately, her work offers a critical lens through which to understand how digital capitalism influences both human nature and societal dynamics in the modern world.

An ideology of deserving: A historical analysis of the United States' immigration policies governing forced migration and social welfare

AbstractLegislation governs both the admittance and treatment of forced migrants in the United States. Increasingly, many forced migrants are offered few welfare benefits, temporary protection, and no pathway to permanent residency. This paper explores forced migrants' legal categories and access to social welfare, focusing on five humanitarian protection statuses: Temporary Protected Status, Humanitarian Parole, Asylum Seeker, Refugee, and Asylee. Based on the concepts of welfare nationalism and the Protestant Work Ethic, our historical analysis examines the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 to see how this landmark legislation shaped access to welfare for noncitizens. We then focus on the emergence of humanitarian statuses since the 1950s and the legislation that constructed them. We conclude that immigration legislation governing forced migrants underlies an ideology of deserving, where some are treated as more meritorious than others. Thus, we call for welfare scholars to elevate immigration status as a key category in their research.

Museum Shops. An Anthropological Essay on Heritage Commodification Exemplified by Three Museums in Amsterdam

The paper presents in an essayistic form three Amsterdam’s museums: Rijksuseum, Tropenmuseum and Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder not in terms of a presentation of their history and collections, but in terms of the idea of heritage commodification and planning, which is embodied in museum shops combined with cafés and restaurants. Amsterdam’s museums are overshadowed by high-profile stereotypes about the city. They are not among the world’s most popular museums as the Netherlands itself is not a top tourist destination. Therefore, the relaxed atmosphere of Amsterdam’s museums – distinguished by its own style between heritage conservation, pragmatism, Protestant ethics, and the existential concept of gezelligheid – needs to be operationalised as an implementation model in other museums around the world. Furthermore, the very subject of museum shops – in terms of their role in heritage commodification and planning – has not been a crucial subject of reflection in the humanities or social sciences. This essay contributes to the study of museum shops as places where the exhibits “exit” the museum room, while the museum “enters” the market. The author points out that the concept of “museum shop” in the context of Amsterdam has a double meaning, emphasising that in this city the division between the sacred museum and the profane street is fluid.

Economic Understanding of Society: A Comparison of Marx and Weber

This paper explores the economic understanding of society through a comparative analysis of Karl Marx and Max Weber, two foundational figures in sociology. Marx’s theory of historical materialism posits that economic structures, comprising the forces and relations of production, fundamentally determine societal organization and development. His model emphasizes the primacy of the economic base in shaping the superstructure, which includes culture, politics, and ideology. Marx's perspective on capitalism focuses on class struggle, exploitation, and the transformative potential of revolutionary change. In contrast, Weber offers a multidimensional approach that incorporates cultural and ideological factors into the analysis of capitalism. His concept of the "Protestant Ethic" illustrates how religious values influenced the development of capitalist economic systems, while his broader framework of rationalization and bureaucracy highlights the complex interplay between economic and non-economic elements in modern society. Weber’s view of social stratification as a combination of class, status, and party further contrasts with Marx’s more economically centered analysis. This comparative study reveals the distinct methodologies and conceptual frameworks of Marx and Weber, enriching the understanding of economic structures and their implications for social organization and change.

Differing worldviews: The politics of happiness, meaning, and psychological richness.

Conservative ideology, broadly speaking, has been widely linked to greater happiness and meaning in life. Is that true of all forms of a good life? We examined whether a psychologically rich life is associated with political orientation, system justification, and Protestant work ethic, independent of two other traditional forms of a good life: a happy life and a meaningful life. Participants completed a questionnaire that assessed conservative worldviews and three aspects of well-being (N = 583 in Study 1; N = 348 in Study 2; N = 436 in Study 3; N = 1,217 in Study 4; N = 2,176 in Study 5; N = 516 in Study 6). Happiness was associated with political conservatism and system justification, and meaning in life was associated with Protestant work ethic. In contrast, zero-order correlations showed that psychological richness was not associated with conservative worldviews. However, when happiness and meaning in life were included in multiple regression models, the nature of the association shifted: Psychological richness was consistently inversely associated with system justification and on average less political conservatism, suggesting that happiness and meaning in life were suppressor variables. These findings suggest that happiness and meaning in life are associated with conservative ideology, whereas psychological richness is not.

Recontextualizing Max Weber’s Ideal Type

Abstract In this article, I recontextualize Weber’s ideal type in the philosophy of natural science and economics in terms of idealization. The goal is to promote the appreciation of this methodology in contemporary social science and improve upon some Weberians’ underdeveloped interpretations. Drawing on Weber’s methodological writing and study of the Protestant ethic, I argue that the philosophy of idealization and Weber’s ideal type share methodological characteristics: both support the selection of a research topic by isolating a particular component of reality and then constructing an imagination based on empirical materials and thought experimentation. By using the imagination as a benchmark, investigators counterfactually and contrastively explain why a particular case was observed as it was, as opposed to other possible outcomes.

Max Weber and Walter Benjamin: Politics facing Capitalism

Abstract: The article compares the relationship between capitalism and politics in Max Weber’s and Walter Benjamin’s works. Benjamin’s text Kapitalismus als Religion references Weber’s Die protestantische Ethik und der ‘Geist’ des Kapitalismus . In recent decades, a considerable number of studies have focused on highlighting the differences and affinities between the thinking of Weber and Benjamin. In contrast, this article takes a rarely pursued approach by introducing an overarching point of reference which examines Weber’s and Benjamin’s views on politics. The article asks what potentialities politics has for Weber and Benjamin given the conditions that capitalism imposes. In order to pursue this question, we need to analyse not only Weber’s Protestant Ethic but also some earlier writings that are indicative of the relationship between capitalism and politics: Weber’s Argentinische Kolonistenwirthschaften , Die Börse. I. Zweck und äußere Organisation der Börsen , and Die Börse. II. Der Börsenverkehr ; and Benjamin’s Theologisch-politisches Fragment and Zur Kritik der Gewalt . My argument is that there is a common ground between Weber and Benjamin on politics since both contribute to the idea that the analysis of modern politics must consider the transformations in capitalism. For Weber, political action can provide meaning to the world, in a context of dispute and in a tragic plot of irreversible forces. For Benjamin, politics refers to the possibility of interrupting the course of history, characterised by the persistence of myth that must be overcome.

Examining the Transformation of "Ancient and Modern" from the Perspective of "Weber's Proposition": How the "Iron Cage" of Modernity Is Formed

Weber attempted to find the crucial cultural impetus that supports and propels the capitalist mode of production in the Protestant Ethic, namely the spirit of capitalism. He interconnected religion, culture, and socio-economics through rationalism, simultaneously delving into a conceptual issue, the "transformation of ancient and modern," brought about by the development of rationalism. Building upon this, Weber uniquely examined how society and actions are irreversibly propelled by the force of these ideas to construct the "iron cage" of modernity. Therefore, placing "Weber's proposition" within the broader context of modern thought serves as a perspective to help us better understand and reflect on capitalism as a spirit of thought or ideology, as well as the crises hidden within the societal reality constructed upon it.

The Black American Church: A Reactionary and Ideological Apparatus of Slavery

This work argues that Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, amongst a few others, were the reactionary (dialectical) exceptions to the black church, not the norm, an (ideological) institution established to interpellate and indoctrinate blacks to accept their conditions in slavery and integrate them into the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism. In other words, the aforementioned were the enslaved who used Christian dogma to (negative dialectically) respond to the barbarity of slavery by violently convicting white Christian society for not living up to its values, ideas, and ideals given the treatment of African people by so-called Christians. In the latter sense it was reactionary; in the former, it was an ideological apparatus of domination and control for the institution of slavery and black integration into the bourgeois living of the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism. The contemporary attempt to racially vindicate the black church as a sui generis revolutionary institution overflowing with Africanisms that stood against the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism is ahistorical and ideological reaped in pseudoscientific propositions stemming from postmodern and post-structural theories.

Robinson Crusoe: A Product of Elective Affinity of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe takes a sailor named Alexander Selkirk as its prototype, telling a story of the protagonist Robinson Crusoe’s life and adventure, especially his experience on an island for 28 years. Critics argue that there are two major themes in the novel: economic individualism and religious belief, and more or less believe that making a good fortune and spiritual pursuit are opposite. However, analysis of the protagonist from a single perspective--economics or religion--inevitably leads to contradiction of understanding the character. This paper analyzes Robinson Crusoe from the theoretical perspective of Max Weber’s Protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism, seeking the “elective affinity” of the two. Crusoe is an ambitious adventurer, a diligent laborer and a lonely ascetic, all of which has an elective affinity with the Protestant ethic. Meanwhile, Robinson Crusoe converts to religion to guide his life. His seemingly contradictory behaviors reflects that he is in fact a product of the elective affinity of the economic ideology and the religious consciousness.

Cook Ding meets homo oeconomicus. Contrasting Daoist and economistic imaginaries of work

ABSTRACT In this paper, we attempt to de-naturalize the prevailing economistic imaginary of work that Max Weber and later commentators described as ‘protestant work ethic,’ epitomized in the figure of homo economicus. We do so by contrasting it with the imaginary of skillful work that can be found in vignettes about artisans in the Zhuangzi. We argue that there are interesting contrasts between these views concerning 1) direct goal achievement vs. indirect goal achievement through the cultivation of skills; 2) the hierarchization of mental versus physical dimensions of work; 3) the crafting of non-dominating relationships between the working subject, their object, and their instruments of work, which leads to questions about the sustainability of these relationships; and 4) the relationship between work and well-being, which the Daoist texts conceptualize in a much more holistic, but also more presentist way than Western economic rationality. We conclude by pointing out the relevance of these differences for several contemporary debates about work, by denaturalizing a dominant imaginary of work, by distinguishing different forms of work, by suggesting a different relation between work and nature, and by raising questions about the desirability of the automation of work.

Ascetic protestantism as fatal strategy: religious-economic conflict and the implosion of cultural value

ABSTRACT This article engages Jean Baudrillard’s principles of hyperreality and fatal strategy, and Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in comparative analysis. First, it defines hyperreality as the saturation of quality to the degree of antithesis and defines fatal strategy as the self-destructive hyperreality of a system of thought, behavior, or exchange. Then, it assesses Weber’s work on ascetic Protestantism and the secularizing influence of capital. Proceeding from the definition of relevant concepts, this analysis finds that ascetic Protestantism is itself a fatal strategy, as it establishes the framework for an economic system that inevitably subverts its own religious foundations. This determination is crucial to the comparative interpretation of Baudrillard and Weber’s thought; the identification of fatal strategy within the genesis of global network of capital broadens the principle’s scope and clarifies hyperconsumption’s proliferation within traditionally ascetic cultures.

Religion and economic prosperity: help or hindrance?

In the contemporary description of the impact of religiosity on social life, the dominant view is one dating back to Max Weber (+1920) on the importance of the Protestant ethic, which, while emphasizing the value of work, at the same time favors prosperity, seeing it as a sign of God's blessing. Based on these assumptions, some seem to suggest that Protestants earn more because their religiosity translates directly into increased profits in their professional work. Contemporary Polish economic philosophers Marcin Gorazda and Tomasz Kwarcinski seem to argue with this thesis in their latest book "Between Prosperity and Happiness." (Cracow 2020). In my paper, I will refer to a brief outline of the biblical context of the question of the propriety of wealth, the reasons for the New Testament warnings against the dangers of wealth, in order to refer to research highlighting the relationship between religiosity and economic success (for example, recent American research on the impact of religion on family firms). Thus, the thesis of Protestantism's favorability toward wealth (compared to Catholicism) must take into account other still other factors such as demographic or sociological.

Analisis Kapitalisme Max Weber sebagai Jalan Pendidikan Agama Kristen Menghadapi Kemiskinan

This study explores the application of Max Weber's seminal work, Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, as a basis for Christian religious education to effectively address the issue of poverty in modern society. By examining the historical context and underlying principles, the author suggests how Christian religious education can use Weber's ideas to promote critical understanding of economic issues and empower people to participate in overcoming poverty. The method used is a literature study approach, where the author collects data from books and relevant topics or issues in this research. The results of this study seek to bridge Weber's sociological insights with the teachings of Christian religious education, by looking at how the principles of hard work, discipline, and individual responsibility can be instilled through the lens of Christian religious education to empower communities in the fight against poverty. By instilling values that promote economic empowerment, community development, and social responsibility, Christian religious education emerges as a powerful tool to address the challenges of poverty in contemporary society.

The protestant ethic and entrepreneurship: inside the black box

We provide one of the first investigations of the cultural and value dimensions through which Protestantism affects entrepreneurship by focusing on the historically predetermined religious minorities residing in the regions of the former Holy Roman Empire. By exploiting the minorities’ strong attachment to religious ethic, we find that Protestantism significantly affects the probability to be an entrepreneur and that the effect is relatively larger when we consider larger enterprises. A formal mediation analysis suggests that among the rich set of individual characteristics and values typically associated with entrepreneurship available in our data, the dimensions that mediate the effect of Protestantism are education and a taste for individualism. In particular, such mediating factors explain around 26% of the total effect of Protestantism on entrepreneurship.

The American Image of the Helmsman or Who Mister Stalin Is

This article is a response to the recently written, very interesting and innovative, book, by an American historian Jim Curtis. During 20th century, the study of the Russian history was conducted in the opposing to each other American and Soviet historiographies. However, as far as Stalinism is concerned, American scholars obviously surpassed the Soviet Union as this theme was forbidden in the latter. Curtis aims to rise above all “combats” and to study Stalinism with the help of such disciplines as media theory, linguistics, and anthropology — disciplines that scholars in America as well as in Russia have usually ignored. He also excellently knows the Russian literature. To his opinion, religious notions, particularly “monasticism”, “monastic walls”, relationship between the elder and the junior comprise a certain framework of Stalin’s consciousness. It may be true but it is not enough to explain the phenomenon of the cult of Stalin’s personality. Moreover, it is arguable whether literature could adequately reflect the history of a society, particularly, for the need of historians. We also have to be very careful when comparing the USA and Russia/USSR, because such phenomena as slavery, political system, frontier, Protestant ethics may be different in their foundation. It is also very hard to compare Stalin with many other dictators as despite their seeming similarities, their origins differ. The main merit of this book is a conviction that the Russian history is indivisible, that Soviet and post-Soviet “periods” simply continue the previous history. This approach enables to understand more in the “natural laws” of the Russian history.

‘Blessed are the Poor’ The Weberian Spirit of Capitalism Under Experimental Scrutiny

This paper empirically tests Max Weber’s thesis on how religious narratives, particularly the Protestant Ethic, influence attitudes toward wealth redistribution. Weber suggested that the Protestant Reformation, led to the belief that economic success was a sign of divine favor, legitimizing wealth inequality. Using a variation of the dictator game with "blessed" framing, we measure how participants’ redistribution behaviors change when primed with this narrative. Our results show that low-income Protestants exposed to the "blessed" narrative are less likely to redistribute wealth compared to Catholics, supporting Weber’s idea that Protestants justify inequality through divine providence. Furthermore, a narrative analysis reveals that Protestants interpret “blessing” as divine election, while Catholics focus more on well-being. These findings suggest that religious narratives significantly shape economic behaviors and preferences for redistribution, providing empirical support for Weber’s thesis.