The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit (Economy Editions)

nice one...

In trying to explain the profound and distinctive emergence of the modern capitalistic economic order, sociologist Max Weber, choose to narrow his focus on religion. As a religious historian, I have always appreciated Weber’s analysis for being so thoughtful of religious concerns and a bold and refreshing departure from other thinkers in his time. To be sure, his theory was not necessarily...more

In trying to explain the profound and distinctive emergence of the modern capitalistic economic order, sociologist Max Weber, choose to narrow his focus on religion. As a religious historian, I have always appreciated Weber’s analysis for being so thoughtful of religious concerns and a bold and refreshing departure from other thinkers in his time. To be sure, his theory was not necessarily itself new but the logic of his argument was rather innovative and interesting. I am aware of why it is so significant while at the same time subject to a great deal of negative scrutiny by subsequent scholars. I wonder why Sombart – his contemporary that while paying careful attention to religious causes while allowing for a more generalized multi-disciplinary explanation is not given more attention? I suppose that we are still primarily reading Weber because the primacy he gives to the rise of the West and his marked favoritism towards Protestantism. I suppose we are also reading this to be aware of the danger of the use of traditional categories of culture, because these categories of cultural identification are changing – especially as we move into a more global friendly, multi-dimensional, inter-disciplinary understanding of the world around us.   hide

oh god how did i hate this book.

Talcott Parsons' translation reads like butter. Beautiful. Some of Weber's examples are simply wrong, especially concerning Catholicism (I was raised in the faith, and he got many facts wrong), but I think his general conclusions are correct. Why did capitalism arise in the west and not the east? What made the west the proper incubator?It's too bad Weber was not alive today. I'd love to hear his...more

Talcott Parsons' translation reads like butter. Beautiful. Some of Weber's examples are simply wrong, especially concerning Catholicism (I was raised in the faith, and he got many facts wrong), but I think his general conclusions are correct. Why did capitalism arise in the west and not the east? What made the west the proper incubator?It's too bad Weber was not alive today. I'd love to hear his conclusions about the latent rise of the east as a capitalist superpower, and especially about its impact on supply and ecology.   hide