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a new thread!
Quote:
Originally posted by taxwonk
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.
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You seem to be saying that Max Weber made a big mistake in locating the source of the religious dogma in Luther and Calvin rather than in the subsequent beliefs of the fine German and Scot burghers. If they believed that the Elect could be identified by hard work and apparent piety, and then worked hard and were pious, doesn't that show their culture giving them an economic advantage. So the culture was influenced by the underlying economic realities, but what else is new? Would the Sioux have felt the same way about buffalo if they had lived in the Everglades?
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“It was fortunate that so few men acted according to moral principle, because it was so easy to get principles wrong, and a determined person acting on mistaken principles could really do some damage." - Larissa MacFarquhar
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