Protestant work ethics: what is it and how does Max Weber explain it?

What is the concept of the Protestant work ethic? Let's see how it explains economic development.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany... all these countries are nations that are considered economically prosperous. Northern Europeans and the regions of the world colonized by them have in common that they are quite wealthy societies.

Max Weber, back in the early 20th century, wanted to understand what it was that made these culturally and geographically distinct countries ideal places for the development of capitalism and, one day, the light bulb came on: Protestantism.

Can a religion influence how rich and prosperous a nation is? According to Weber, yes, arguing that it was the Protestant work ethic that made the nations mentioned above so economically developed.. Let's look at it below.

What is the Protestant work ethic?

The Protestant work ethic, a term coined by the German philosopher Max Weber, is a concept used in sociology, economics and history that is based on the notion that the Calvinist emphasis on the need for hard work as an attractive component would explain why the Calvinist emphasis on the need for hard work as an attractive component would explain why the Protestant work ethic is so important. as an attractive component would explain why Protestant-majority countries have succeeded economically. According to Calvinism, hard work and personal success are signs of having received salvation and God's grace, an idea already present in the ideas of Martin Luther.

Before the irruption of Protestantism and its multiple currents, Western Europe was largely Catholic. The classical view within Catholicism is that in order to obtain God's grace and obtain salvation it is necessary to do good works in life. Whether by helping the underprivileged or by not committing crimes or sins, we will be considered good people deserving of divine good treatment and thus enter the kingdom of Heaven when we die.

However, this view was replaced in several parts of Europe when Protestantism appeared. In fact, its theses could be considered rather contrary to those of Catholicism when it speaks of salvation.. It is not that Protestantism, or at least most of it, is against good works, but it does consider that it does not matter whether we do them or not, since salvation and divine grace are aspects that are decided by God at the moment of birth or even before, not during our lives.

For Protestants, specifically Calvinism, the relationship between salvation and being a generous, kind and successful person in life is inverted.. It is not that salvation is the consequence of behaving well in life, but that it is the cause of our being good people. God predestines our salvation and, consequently, our way of being. That is to say, Protestant theologians, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, preached that we could only be saved if God so decided, not by the works we did.

It is not possible to know if a person has received this salvation but it is possible to discern whether or not it has been granted to us based on how we behaved in life. Protestants defended that it was possible to find out if a person had been chosen by God to be saved if he was attractive, successful in business, hardworking, faithful, devoted to the Lord, a good person... signs that attracted the rest of the followers of God. attracted the rest of the followers of Protestantism, since they wanted to rub shoulders with those who had been chosen by God..

The link between Protestant ethics and capitalism

Max Weber's reason for linking Protestantism with economic development makes a lot of sense if one looks at the world economic context of his time, at the beginning of the 20th century. The Germanic and Anglo-Saxon world, especially the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany (Prussia) and Scandinavia, was undergoing immense development.. Moreover, their people were known to be very hard-working and productive, an aspect that undoubtedly had to have had a positive impact on the economies of these regions.

This hard-working spirit was directly related to the Protestant work ethic, since in all these regions, the majority of the population followed some Protestant trend, especially Calvinism and Calvinism.especially Calvinism and Lutheranism. Max Weber expressed these ideas in his book "The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1905), which, once translated into English, was considered almost an economic Bible in the United States, as well as being used as an argument in favor of the supremacy of the Protestant religion over the Catholic religion.

It is not surprising that this book has been so successful in North America, since more than half of its inhabitants identify themselves with a Protestant cult. Although nowadays few Americans follow Calvinist currents, many of their Puritan ancestors, considered the founders of the United States, did. The English Calvinists settled in Massachusetts Bay in order to practice their creed, considered somewhat extreme in Europe. These people greatly influenced the economic and social development of North America.

As we said before, John Calvin's current proposed that man's destiny was already pre-established by God. It is not our actions that decide whether we go to heaven or not, but God has already decided this at the moment of our birth. Depending on his decision, we will behave in a way more or less associated with that of a person who has been granted salvation. If we are good, successful and triumphant in life, it is because God has given it to us and, as a consequence, we are profitable people.

There are several outward signs that Calvinism considers to be proofs of having received God's grace.. If a person strives to have them, Protestant logic will say that it is because he really received salvation as soon as he was born and that, sooner or later, he had to manifest them. Even if the Protestant person has worked hard to have a good body, a successful business or a profitable life, she will interpret it as God, and not her, who has made it so.

It is this idea that Weber used as an argument for the economic superiority of Protestantism over Catholicism. Protestant believers, with the idea of demonstrating that they have received divine grace, will strive harder to make their businesses the most prosperous, since they do not want to accept the idea that they have not received God's grace. Through their efforts they achieve glory and end up having the "certainty" that God has chosen them.

Another interesting aspect of Protestantism that Weber relates to the development of capitalism is its idea of wealth. While in Catholicism it was frowned upon to have a lot of money, this is not the case in Protestantism.But money should not be wasted on superfluous luxuries. Protestants see working as an ethical value, something to thank God for, unlike Catholicism, which saw it as a heavenly punishment for original sin. Protestants see working and saving money as a form of devotion to God.

Also related to Calvinism is a rather murky and controversial idea of charity. Many Protestants, on the basis that God gives us his grace in a predestined way, see beggars as people who have not received salvation. As a consequence, they live a miserable life and that is the way it should be because God has decided so. From the most radical Calvinist point of view, giving money to these beggars in a charitable way is against God's plan, no matter how much money we have left over.no matter how much money we have left over.

Since the Protestants could not spend their money on whims for themselves, nor should they give it to the weakest, since it was against God's designs, the wealthiest believers were obliged to save and invest. It was by means of these two actions that their patrimonies were increasing, being able to create more powerful businesses and enjoy a more affluent lifestyle but always with abstinence and moderation.

Criticism of Max Weber's ideas

Max Weber's ideas have been long debated even at the time when he made them known. To claim that it was the Protestant work ethic that had guaranteed the emergence of capitalism in countries where Protestantism was the majority religion was a fallacious assertion. Without going much further, in the Europe of his time there were regions with a Catholic majority where capitalism was prospering: Catalonia, the Basque Country, Padania, Bavaria, the Rhineland, most of France....

One might have thought that these regions were prospering because their entrepreneurs had adopted the Protestant ethic, with or without adopting their religion, but this too seemed to be false. In fact, there is evidence there is evidence to suggest that capitalism may have begun before the Protestant reforms during the Renaissance.. The Catholic Renaissance states of Lombardy, Genoa and Venice were rich and prosperous regions, with significant craft production and unparalleled trade relations.

Max Weber ignored an important detail that, being German, he should have known and which undermined his whole theory. His native Prussia, the ancestor of today's Germany, was a rich and prosperous region that he claimed was so because it was Protestant, but what about its sister? Austria was Prussia's sister nation and rival during the Germanic unification.. It was basically a southern Germany where German was also spoken and a rich and prosperous economy was developing. The only thing it differed in was that it was a strongly Catholic nation.

Max Weber could have incorporated in his hypotheses being German as the other factor that guarantees that an economy is prosperous, ideas that were indeed coined by several pro-Nazi philosophers and economists decades later. The problem with this is that another great nation, France, was also developing strongly and was neither German nor Protestant. In fact, when the Gallic country was still a kingdom, it became the richest nation in Europe until Louis XIV ascended to the throne and ruined the country by spending the budget on all kinds of wars.

And finally we have the current panorama that if Max Weber had seen it, he would have been astonished. Not only are there European Catholic countries whose economic development is very high, but there are also those that are neither white nor Christian..... The Far East shows us that a country can be prosperous without having a philosophy or culture based on Christian values, as is the case of Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, as well as the People's Republic of China which, although theoretically communist, its development is comparable to that of a large capitalist economy.

Bibliographical references:

• Weber, Max (1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Chas. Scribner's sons.
• Green, Robert, (1973). The Weber Thesis Controversy. D.C. Heath
• Maestro Cano, Ignacio C. (2018). Weber's thesis on capitalism on the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Ilu. Journal of the sciences of religions 23: 149-174.