Protestant Ethic Research Articles

Визуальная теология икономии

The concept of oikonomia, which brings together cosmology, anthropology and jurisprudence is characteristic of iconic culture in the Byzantine tradition. Drawing on the political ideas of Leo Strauss and the interpretation of icons in the theories of the visual by Paul Virilio, Jean-Luc Marion, and Marie-Josée Mondzain, we reconstruct the applicability limits of this concept in visual programs. Oikonomia is a principle of legal regulation that converts legal conflicts into economic ones. It helps to understand the world economy as a global system that has an eschatological dimension. The oikonomia of salvation, with its dogmatic meaning, is realized in practical life and in practical mind as a professionalization of econ-omy in a broad sense. In the structure of oikonomia, the distinction between theoretical and practical reason is ultimately fulfilled, so that the concept should be understood not as a mode of adaptation to the current situation, but as a symbiosis in the sense of Graham Harman’s Immaterialism. Therefore, we can say that oikonomia constitutes an alternative to Protestant ethics, and regularizes the elaboration of iconic forms as teleological, building an architecture of designs and their realizations. This kind of approach to oikonomia encourages us to adopt a new viewpoint on the achievements of Russian religious thought: to see it not as a dogmatic creativity but as a requisite ethical reflection or practical eschatology. The iconic can then be described not as a balance of representation and solemn construction, as it is usually done when specific visual techniques of icon-making are presented, that is as a necessary solemn liturgical entrance of the heavenly into the earthly. Another, equally consistent description is possible, a balance of solemn politics and eschatological sincerity, where politics represents its own self, while sincerity appears as an aspect of solemn appeal and an implementation of higher- level plans in relation to aesthetic and ethical decisions. This will explain the development of the icon in Modern era and show how various practical interpretations of oikonomia can be applied non-discursively, but only within the manifestation of eschatological experience.

Affinity and Separation of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism—Analysis of the Crisis of Capitalism in Weberian Perspective

Affinity and Separation of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism—Analysis of the Crisis of Capitalism in Weberian Perspective

A kötelességteljesítő protestáns etika, a szolgáló lelkület életpéldája. Balogh Jenő (1864–1953) jogászprofesszor személyes adatai és életútja

A Protestant Ethic of Duty, a Living Example of a Serving Spirit Biography of Law Professor Jenő Balogh (1864–1953). Our publication is part of a larger prosopographical study of the careers of Calvinist university professors belonging to the Hungarian knowledge elite in the bourgeois era (1848–1944). Jenő Balogh, a professor of law, was an academic researcher, a ministerial legislator seeking new paths, a teacher of modern disciplines, a minister in difficult times, and the General Secretary of the Academy. For decades, he held leading positions in the Calvinist Church of Hungary. His way of life and his work were determined by a Puritan Christian worldview brought from his family and by a dutiful Protestant ethic. Keywords: knowledge elite, university professor, legislation, political role, science policy, church offices, Protestant ethics

A Catholic correction of Max Weber’s thesis on Protestant ethic in the view of Michael Novak

Abstract Max Weber’s thesis on the decisive influence of Protestant ethic on the formation and development of modern capitalism has become one of the best-known and widely shared canonical claims in social sciences. Since its publication at the beginning of the 20th century, this thesis, supported by subsequent great works by the German classic, has rarely been the subject of major controversy. The work of correcting Weber’s thesis was undertaken in the late 20th century by Michael Novak. Novak’s correction is not confrontational, but complementary. The American thinker abandons the research area of minority Protestant communities, which caught Weber’s attention, and undertakes an analysis of the broader religious tradition, developing both before and after the Reformation. In particular, the achievements of Pope John Paul II, interpreted by Novak in terms of the renewal of a liberty current of Catholic social thought, provide important corrective data.

Arab Sunni-Wahhâbism and Shia Iran: From Sectarian Conflict, to the Domination of the Gulf Region

Discussions regarding the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East have always been framed as a sectarian conflict between Sunni-Wahhābism and Shia. The study data presented in this article provide a distinct, exhaustive empirical picture. This study aims to present a conceptual framework for the relationship between religious theology in Islam (Sunni Wahhābi and Shia-ism) and the competitive conflict in the Gulf region, the struggle for dominance in the Middle East region, as a variable for the protracted conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and to predict the future of relations between the two countries following the foreign policy of Muhammad bin Salman. A review of the discussion employing an inductive library research methodology. To generalize a deviation from purely accidental phenomena. In order to analyze this topic in greater depth, the author borrows theory from Max Weber regarding the protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism by placing religion as a belief system and state conflict as a structure of social group action. This study's findings assume that the issue of Sunni-Shia sectarianism is religious propaganda used to win the hegemonic competition in the struggle for territory and dominance in the Gulf region of the Middle East. Before the reign of Muhammad bin Salman, this condition had not changed substantially. In Weber's framework, there has been a distinction known as "ethical inter-minism" between two ethics. On the one hand, the structure of moral ethics is founded on the moral values of Sunni and Shia Islam. But on the political side, moral responsibility confronts the obligation to maintain the disintegration of the nation and state, which is a means to wage war.

Andrew Lynn, Saving the Protestant Ethic: Creative Class Evangelicalism and the Crisis of Work

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

Self-determined Sex Work as Care Work Between Experiences of Integrity and Vulnerability

Sex work or prostitution marks a controversial topic for Protestant sexual ethics. It is also a multifaceted phenomenon because it can occur in very different forms: the spectrum ranges from poverty, emergency and procurement prostitution to the self-determined and insured sex worker with all imaginable shades in between. In the current economic system, goods and services are exchanged, traded, sold, acquired and paid for, so sex work can also be understood as work. For the purposes of this article, we will therefore start from an understanding of sex work as care work. Care work can be understood as the satisfaction of needs and interests of third parties and the self. If sex work is discussed as care work, this has a variety of consequences. These include the fact that questions of vulnerability and integrity come to the fore. Integrity can be comprehended as self-realisation or autonomy and thus as potentially vulnerable, taking up Axel Honneth’s early reflections on the issue of recognition. Integrity in Axel Honneth’s sense can - according to a first approximation - play a role for sex work on three levels: physical or corporeal level, structural level and lifestyle or way of life level. Finally, the essay discusses the concept of negotiated or consensual morality as a contribution of Protestant ethics.

Valuing Hard Work: ‘Station Times’, the Pioneer Complex and Settler-Descended Graziers’ Views on Work in Cape York Peninsula

The historically unequal grazing industry in Cape York Peninsula, far northeast Queensland, gave rise to intercultural relationships between Aboriginal stock workers and settler-descended graziers. However, in recent decades, Aboriginal employment on cattle stations has fallen. Nowadays, many younger Aboriginal people work in government-funded jobs which settler-descended graziers frame as ‘hand-out style’ work. Settler-descended graziers have come to value an ethic of hard work related to both the Protestant work ethic and aspects of pioneer mythology which are entwined with graziers’ senses of belonging. Contemporary Aboriginal people are positioned by settler-descended graziers as having a ‘different’ relationship to work and lacking the valuation of hard work that graziers deem a moral good. In their discussions of Aboriginal people as lacking a valuation for ‘hard work’, graziers seek to critique what they perceive as government overreach in the form of land rights and government-funded jobs.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CAPITALISM: MAX WEBER AND MILTON FRIEDMAN

Purpose- The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," and Milton Friedman's influential book, "Capitalism and Freedom," offer valuable insights into the intricate relationship between religion, capitalism, and the development of Western societies. Weber's analysis focuses on the historical and cultural factors that have shaped the evolution of capitalism, particularly examining the influence of religious beliefs, such as Protestantism. He argues that the Protestant work ethic, emphasizing hard work, thrift, and the pursuit of wealth, played a significant role in fostering capitalism. On the other hand, Friedman, an economist and advocate of classical liberal economics, explores the advantages of free-market capitalism and emphasizes limited government intervention in the economy. While acknowledging the historical impact of religion, Friedman primarily addresses the economic principles of capitalism and its relationship with political freedom. Weber's work draws upon historical research and sociological insights, while Friedman relies on economic theory and empirical analysis. Ultimately, Weber's analysis provides a deeper understanding of how Western societies adopted a capitalist work ethos, while Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" promotes a laissez-faire approach to economic policy, advocating for limited government intervention and the benefits of free markets. Methodology- Methodology employed in this study centers around conducting a discourse analysis of Max Weber's "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" and Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom." The aim was to deconstruct the narratives presented in these influential books and analyze their respective perspectives on the relationship between religion, capitalism, and freedom. The primary methodological approach involved a close reading and critical examination of the texts, through which the ideas, arguments, and underlying assumptions put forth by Weber and Friedman were explored. By thoroughly engaging with the content of the books, a comprehensive understanding of the authors' viewpoints and the nuances of their arguments was sought. Additionally, comparative analysis techniques were employed to identify similarities and differences in the approaches taken by Weber and Friedman. Through this comparative approach, the distinctive aspects of their theories were highlighted, and the broader discourse surrounding religion, capitalism, and freedom in Western societies was illuminated.. Findings- According to Max Weber, the Protestant Reformation, with a specific focus on Calvinism, was instrumental in promoting values and behaviors that nurtured the capitalist spirit. The Protestant work ethic, emphasizing hard work, thrift, and the pursuit of wealth, created an environment conducive to the rise of capitalism. Milton Friedman primarily explores the economic principles of capitalism and their relationship with political freedom. It is argued by Friedman that economic freedom is a necessary condition for achieving civil and political freedom. Emphasis is placed on the detrimental effects of excessive government intervention, and advocacy is made for limited state control and free-market capitalism. Friedman believes that a competitive capitalist system, characterized by voluntary cooperation and individual initiative, can prevent the concentration of coercive political power. It is posited by him that economic arrangements, based on free markets and individual freedom, are crucial for the overall promotion of a free society. Conclusion- Both studies are unique in their own ways and contribute to original ideas on what capitalism ought to be. Weber compared to Friedman has a profound insight in how capitalism has grown from specific cultural and religious values. Friedman struggles with explaining how capitalism might have risen, but relies heavily on classic liberal ideas on how capitalism must be perceived to be a necessity for political freedoms. Keywords: Capitalism, protestant ethic, economic freedom, political freedom, hard work, discipline, free market JEL Codes: B1, B2, P4, Z1

CONTEMPLATION ON RELIGIOUS WORK ETHICS IN 'THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS' AND 'DOA YANG MENGANCAM'

The two films The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and Doa yang Mengancam (2008) as the representations of Protestant and Muslim communities both demonstrate significant implications toward the dynamics of work ethics. The problem addressed by this comparison of two cinematic works is the influences of two different religious values on personal work ethics. The foundation of comparative literature paradigm is the idea that by studying literary works from various cultural and linguistic contexts, we can better understand how historical and cultural situations form human experiences--in this case, religious work ethics--occur. The aim of this research is to compare the representation of work ethics within the two main characters in the films as influenced by their respective religious values. The theory used for solving the case is Stuart Hall's (1997) representation theory by using the constructivism paradigm (symbolic, image, discursive, and myth function) with qualitative research method. The findings show that Chris, as a Protestant, has higher work ethics than Madrim, a young Muslim, according to Max Weber's Protestant Ethic principles. However, this situation has an impact on the Protestant’s attitude which is more materialistic than that of the Muslim which shows an equality between worldly wealth and good deeds in the afterlife.

Black American Communities: From Pathology to Intersectionality

This article, using Mocombeian phenomenological structural theory, phenomenological structuralism, highlights black American community transition from a pathological-pathogenic community to an intersectional one, which dominates the contemporary global order. The work posits that the constitution of black American communities and their identities have been the product of their relations to the means and mode of production within the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism. As such, black Americans have never been agents in the constitution of their own identities. They have always been and remain (reactionary) pawns of capital seeking, dialectically or negative dialectically, to integrate the American social structure. Contemporarily, their integration in post-industrial America is marked by their transition from a pathological-pathogenic community to a neoliberal intersectional one dominated by their youth, women, and queers.

Value-Ethical System in Sub-Saharan Africa. From the Past to the Future

The article is devoted to the analysis of the value-ethical system in Sub-Saharan Africa in historical retrospect with the transition to modernity. The concept of “value-ethical system” reflects the specifics of the African worldview, in which all values have a moral meaning. The article analyzes the value foundation on which Africans want to build “the Africa they dream of” (as stated in the program document of the African Union “Agenda 2063”). The author examines African traditional values based on the research of modern African scientists, on her own African archives, on memories and personal impressions collected by the author during her stay in the countries of the African continent. In traditional Africa, there exist value-ethical complexes in which ancient folk wisdom is concentrated. This is, for example, Ubuntu of the Bantu peoples – humanity, equality of people, regardless of race, nationality, religion. It is also a community solidarity associated with the importance of family ties. The author proves that the culture of Sub-Saharan Africa belongs to the collectivist type. Collectivism in combination with Ubuntu serves as a barrier to the adoption by Africans of a Protestant work ethic that welcomes individual success, competition, and profit orientation (outside of the principle of fairness). “Western” values are the opposite of traditional African ethics and values. Currently, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa are looking for their own way of development within the framework of capitalism. African scientists want to develop a system of economic philosophy that includes traditional African values in order to make capitalism relevant to African countries and acceptable to the African mentality. Special attention is paid to the issues of dialogue, traditional democracy and African organizational and managerial principles.

Otto Neurath's Distorted Reception of Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Abstract: Otto Neurath probably never read Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism , but only perceived it through J.B. Kraus's book Scholasticism, Puritanism, and Capitalism . For Kraus, as a Jesuit, it was important to take a clear position in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics. The goal of his argument was to downplay and limit the importance of Protestantism to modern capitalism. He therefore hardly addresses Weber's particular argumentation. Neurath, in turn, presumably relied on Kraus in order to call upon a Jesuit as a key witness for Marxism. This as well as Neurath's well-known tendency for polemics made him follow Kraus, who with his criticism of Weber by means of Marx wanted to establish, as Neurath called it, a 'Marxism of a Jesuit' as a third way. Kraus's criticism triggered Neurath's misconception that Weber's writing should be understood as an anti-thesis to Marx. Surprisingly, he never realized how closely Weber's approach in the empirically based study corresponded with his own methodological approach of an empirical sociology.

The Religion of Consumer Capitalism and the Construction of Corporate Sacred Spaces

If one looks at the United States over the past sixty years, it becomes clear that religious and spiritual practices have proliferated in unexpected places and spaces. They have become thoroughly ensconced in the boardrooms, offices, shop floors, and retail spaces of business establishments. From there, they have seeped into just about every imaginable area of American life, turning schools, parks, shopping malls, sports stadiums, hospitals, gyms, health food restaurants, spas, and the very apps on our computers and cell phones into corporate spaces promising new and enticing forms of spiritual enchantment. The purpose of this essay is to document the way new forms of spirituality have become part of a much longer history of the entanglement of business and religion, a history that began in monasteries, formed the bedrock of the Puritan work ethic, and is now an established aspect of the neoliberal ideal of the privatization and corporatization of all aspects of human life.

The Ghosts of Max Weber in the Economic History of Preindustrial Europe

Abstract: During the past fifty years, economic historians trained in economics have turned Max Weber into a champion of the cultural foundations of economic growth that he was not. The article examines the reasons and consequences of this misappropriation. It begins by highlighting Weber’s aversion to monocausal explanations and identifies two lines of argument in his voluminous writings on the historical development of Western capitalism: one stressing religious values and one focusing on political and legal institutions. While Weber never fully reconciled these two lines of argument, he considered them complementary rather than mutually exclusive. The article continues by tracing the engagement (or lack thereof) with Weber in the work of Douglass C. North and in a recent flurry of papers on the “economics of religion” that ostensibly tests the empirical validity of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905). It then discusses the return of interest in the coevolution of cultural and institutional processes of change among some economists and political scientists. Throughout, the article signals how this reception history went hand in hand with a decline in exchanges between economists and scholars in other disciplines. Ultimately, it argues for the importance of incorporating the history of disciplines in our disciplinary practices. More specifically, it stresses the continued relevance of Weber’s research agenda for the comparative and historical study of capitalisms (in the plural), in spite of the fact that many of his conclusions appear now outdated.

Coordinated Control Design for Ethical Maneuvering of Autonomous Vehicles

This paper proposes a coordinated control design method, with which the autonomous vehicle is able to perform ethical maneuvers. The starting point of the provided method is a thorough analysis on the ethical concepts for autonomous vehicle control design methods. Using the results of the analysis, an own concept is provided based on some principles of Protestant ethics. The concept focuses on improving trust in vehicle control through clear rules and predictable vehicle motion, and it is in line with the state-of-the-art ethical vehicle control methods. Moreover, an optimal Model Predictive Control (MPC) design method is formed, in which the provided ethical concept is incorporated. The outputs of the optimal control are steering angle and velocity profile, with which the ethical maneuvering can be achieved. The contribution of the paper is a coordinated control design method, which is able to involve ethical principles. Moreover, the application of Protestant ethics in this context is also a novel achievement in the paper. The effectiveness of the method through different simulation scenarios is illustrated.

Behavior, religion, and socio-economic development: a synthesized theoretical framework

Due to theoretical shortcomings, most of the literature that examines the impact of religion on economic well-being fails to distinguish between the religion and the religion constituents. Moreover, the current framework has a narrow focus on economic well-being, does not facilitate for empirical testing, and is troubled by the problem of endogeneity. This paper introduces a framework for the empirical and descriptive study of the impact of religion on socio-economic development. The framework introduced facilitates for the adoption of both inductive and deductive approaches, allowing one to operationalize and analyze the religion itself, to test whether it embodies any principles that might hinder development by facilitating for the construction of a quantitative measure, which seeks to differentiate between the religion and the behavior of its constituents, as well as facilitate for a descriptive study of the religion itself. An example of how to utilize the framework developed is provided for the case of Islam, where the concept of Mafsada, public harm, in the Maqasid of Shariah, the purpose of Islamic jurisprudence, is operationalized, alongside Adam Smith’s Worthless Fellow in the Theory of Moral Sentiments, to develop a composite measure whose corollaries represent behavior a worthless fellow might engage in and would subsequently lead to societal harm. These corollaries can also be adopted in an empirical study as independent variables. Moreover, Ibn Khuldon’s Theory of Development is also utilized along with Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic to facilitate for the study as to why Muslim countries are underdeveloped, and whether their poor development is attributable to Islam, or due to factors relating to culture, justice, politics, and others. This study utilizes a causal research design as it facilitates for better understanding the nature and the extent of the relationship between variables in poorly understood phenomena—behavior, religion, and how, and whether, they can impact development.

Între viață și cărți. Despre neajunsurile și beneficiile ratării

This study analyses the relationship between failure and success from two perspectives: creative psychology and sociology of creation. By starting from Angelo Mitchievici’s recent book, “Farmecul vieților distruse. Câteva reflecții despre ratare” [The Charm of Failed Lives] (2022), which explores one of the favorite themes of decadent literature and art (failure), I aim to highlight the most relevant existential postures in a writer’s life: the anti-bourgeois aristocratic posture (the dandy) and the proletarian-democratic posture (the bohemian). It is not by chance that Mitchievici dwells on the works the Romanian-French writer Emil Cioran, who tried to build an image of a secluded writer, close to anonymity, avoiding to cultivate both the bohemian and the dandy style, by adopting a lifestyle shaped by the cult of work and discipline, in the spirit of the Protestant ethics theorized by Max Weber. Mitchievici explains very convincingly how, once he emigrated to Paris, Cioran completely abandoned the Romanian language, in which he was convinced he was failing as a writer, in order to devote himself exclusively to writing in French, with the idea of conquering global glory. In addition to Cioran, the authors in focus are Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Flaubert, Dino Buzzatti, Mihail Sadoveanu, Mircea Cărtărescu, etc., which provides the critic with the opportunity to reconnect with his former books (e.g. “Decadență și decadentism în contextul modernității românești și europene”, 2011) and to show a refined and mature essayist’s vein.

Antropoloogiline vaade tööle: mõtisklusi kaevuritest ja diginomaadidest

This article gives an overview of how to research work and labour from an anthropological perspective. Based on the examples of my ethnographic research with miners, teachers and digital nomads, I show how the anthropology of work is based both on the dark anthropology of suffering and the dispossessed as well as the anthropology of the good. Anthropology of work, like anthropology in general, is characterised by a holistic approach, cultural relativism and the ethnographic method. I present five points that I have developed in my own research. First, based on the political economy approach, I argue that at the core of the anthropology of work are global inequalities and their everyday expressions at the workplace. I bring examples of my work in an underground mine in Estonia where miners try to regulate and control the tempo of everyday work while the managers try to make them work faster and more, and how such micro-tempo of the everyday is an expression of larger class structures. I also bring an example of the overlap of class and ethnicity among working-class Russian speakers in Estonia. I then discuss how anthropologists also consider the wider political-economic dimension as the industrial accidents in a Kazakhstani coal mine are affected by the global economic situation as well as global inequalities. Secondly, following David Graeber, I argue that work should be studied as producing both material value and immaterial values. I discuss how miners find salary and respect for their job both important and how Estonian teachers produce value in the future labour force and values as the moral base of society simultaneously and feel that they should be given both a decent salary and an immaterial value expressed in their autonomy and professionalism for their work. In neoliberal Estonia, where different values dominate and other professions are more appreciated, they claim to be lacking both. Thirdly, I argue that anthropological research looks at work from a wider perspective than just paid employment and considers also reproductive work. I bring an example of the transformation of women’s work in a Kazakhstani coal processing plant where the specialist work of regulating the production process has gradually been taken over by cleaning work akin to domestic reproductive tasks, invisible and unappreciated. Fourthly, I emphasise the embodied nature of work and how it creates intersubjective relations between bodies and inanimate objects such as machines or computer programmes. Finally, anthropology as a discipline that does not take the status quo for granted, is a good tool for questioning the centrality of work and dominance of the Protestant work ethic in the contemporary capitalist world. Based on the example of my work with digital nomads, I discuss how these young professionals knowingly decrease their work hours and are trying to spend their time on other pleasant non-commodified activities. Despite this, it is hard to completely denounce the dominant Protestant work ethic. I conclude by calling for both dark and utopian anthropology of work and more interdisciplinary collaborations.

The Role of Women’s and Men’s Body Shapes in Explicit and Implicit Fat Stigma

Beyond being painful, fat stigma might facilitate pernicious consequences; over and above one’s weight, fat stigma is associated with lesser wellbeing, poorer health, greater all-cause mortality, and weight gains that perpetuate the weight-stigma cycle. To combat fat stigma effectively requires an understanding of the perceptual calculus underlying it. Here, we seized upon new work asserting that importance of a previously overlooked variable in this calculus—fat deposition location (body shape)—and we examine basic but fundamental open questions about the role of body shape in fat stigma via two experiments (one pre-registered). We replicate and extend work investigating how body shape—over and above body size—drives stigma toward women, using a figure set created specifically to test predictions about the role of body shape as well as size. We asked: (1) Are findings of greater explicit stigma toward adult women with abdominal (gut) versus gluteofemoral fat depositions (hips, thighs, buttocks) replicated—and (2) does this same finding hold for implicit stigma?; (3) Are male targets similarly stigmatized as a function of shape? (4) Do individual difference factors known to predict anti-fat stigma, e.g., Protestant Work Ethic, play a role here? We examined these questions by presenting American participants with women and men targets varying in both body size and shape—assessing participants’ explicit stigma (via self-report) and implicit stigma (via the Attitude Misattribution Procedure; AMP). We replicated the pattern that explicit fat stigma toward women is shape-sensitive and extend that to implicit stigma—finding, for example, that, of two women with the same exact heights and higher weights, the woman with abdominal fat deposition is more stigmatized than the woman with gluteofemoral fat deposition. We found no consistent results regarding the role of body shape in driving fat stigma toward men. We also found that some individual difference factors predicting anti-fat stigma were also attuned to body shape as well as body size. The results underscore the importance of integrating body shape into future work on fat stigma (toward women).