Cydney Wardlaw
SOC 306
4/29/2015

Outline for The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

I. The Capitalist Spirit
A. Through modern capitalism, Weber suggests certain ethic grew linking moral righteousness with making money.

B. Every person is born into sin and faces the possibility of being enslaved by sin
C. Jesus, the only son of God, sacrifices himself to allow for the atonement of sin and the possibility of being granted everlasting life in heaven.
D. Everlasting life depends upon God's mercy, which is based upon one's faith and good works.
II. Calvanism (predestination, dualism, and inner-worldly asceticism)
A. Predestination: God has a plan for each of us, including knowledge about whether we are among the saved.
B. Dualism: Because we can never know God's true plan, no person knows for certain whether they are among the saved.
C. Inner-worldly asceticism: Given this dilemma of life, people focus upon living a righteous life and look for indications they are among the saved, among those blessed by God.

III. The Protestant Ethic
A. The idea of ‘calling’ only came in with the Protestant Reformation.

B. Calling was related to Protestant theologian Calvin’s idea of ‘predestination’ – that you did not know while you were alive whether you were one of God’s ‘elect’(whether you would live in eternity or be eternally damned)

C. Protestantism forbade wastefully using hard earned money and labeled the purchase of luxuries as a sin

D. If you were successful in your work, it was a sign that you were one of the chosen.
E. religions also frowned at donating money to the poor or to charity because it was seen as encouraging begging

IV. Calling and Capitalism
A. capitalism evolved when the Protestant ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the workforce
B. People developed their own enterprises and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment.
C. The Protestant ethic was therefore the driving force behind the mass action that led to the development of capitalism

deals with the connections between the protestant revolution and the rise of capitalism, with Max Weber trying to account for the fact the Protestants seem to do better in a capitalistic environment when compared with other religions (especially Catholicism). However, the main point of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is