Quote:
Originally posted by baltassoc
Setting aside the obvious issues with the treatment of women in the Catholic church that Hank already pointed out, I'm saying that it was not the Catholics who drove the mass expansion of Europe and North America's economies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Which isn't to say they didn't participate, but only that their participation was in reaction to an ethic that arose form protestant dogmas. Protestants started working hard because Luther and Calvin told them that was how to get into heaven. Catholics started working harder because a) a little bit of Calvin rubbed off and b) their protestant neighbors were getting rich, and the Catholics are no fools.
It's not a criticism of the Catholic religion, but there wasn't the dogmatic impetus that there was for early protestants.
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To be more accurate, Luther told them to work hard or they would go to Hell. There was no promise of Heaven in original Lutheran dogma. Calvin said that people were born in a state of grace or not. In other words, you were either going to Heaven or Hell at birth, and nothing you could do would change that.
It was the fine German and Scot burghers who decreed that it was by their hard work and apparent piety that the Elect could be identified on Earth. Hence, Max Weber actually made a big fucking mistake in attributing the work ethic to religious dogma. It was actually people once again manipulating religious dogma for economic reasons. Imagine that.
