Work Ethic
Introduction
Man was placed in Paradise… that he would till the land not in servile labor but with a spiritual pleasure befitting his dignity.
Augustine [1]
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(CONTACT R. Paul Stevens, paul@imtglobal.org)
Why work? And why work hard? A contemporary film maker once said that when he wakes up in the morning his mind is like a jar full of ball bearings rolling around, a million ideas going through his head of what he wants to do that day and with the film he is currently directing. Motivated? Some might say he is obsessed. But there is more to it than simple being a workaholic. It has to do with one’s work ethic. Typically entrepreneurs are highly motivated and for multiple reasons including the fun of being captain of one’s own ship. But the question of what makes an entrepreneur “tick” or anyone else for that matter is an important one. The technical term for this is “work ethic.” The term needs to be distinguished from work ethics or ethical issues in the workplace. Work ethic gets at the guts of the matter: Why work? Why work as one does? Why do some not “get into” their work? Why are some fully engaged? Why work well?
In this article we will explore, as we must, the influence of the so-called “Protestant work ethic”, popularized by the German Max Weber. Then we will consider other work ethics than the Protestant one. Finally, we will offer a theological biblical perspective on work ethic.
The concept of calling has been at the heart of Protestant denominations since the Reformation. One of Martin Luther’s key precepts was that there was no longer a distinction between the sacred and the secular as delineated in a Catholic worldview, but rather all followers of Christ have equally valid callings. The obligation of believers was to do their utmost in the position to which God called them. From that point on, all activities, and our principal focus here is those that occur in the marketplace, have spiritual significance. Everything can be done to the glory of God, regardless of the particular task being undertaken. Luther’s perspective on work and calling was fundamentally different from that of the Catholic Church. Over time the Protestant view of work and calling was refined. One issue that has troubled believers is to confirm that their own sense of calling is in harmony with God’s will. For Christians in the marketplace, the most tangible confirmation of their calling was economic success. Profit earned in the marketplace was not simply a reward to shrewdness, but it was a confirmation that God has blessed their calling.
Max Weber 101 [2]
German sociologist Max Weber, who originated the concept of “the Protestant work ethic” in his landmark 1905 book, recognized this interplay between the Protestant sense of calling and the devotion to the pursuit of economic success [3]. Simply Weber argues that the Protestant ethic gave birth to capitalism. Weber’s thesis remains relevant to this day though it is only partly true, as we shall see. [4] Weber identified four principal forms of what he called “ascetic” Protestantism; in other words, a religious expression that emphasized personal holiness with a denial of earthly pleasures. He concentrated on Calvinism and Pietism which originated in Western Europe in the 17th Century; Methodism of the mid-18th Century in England; and sects growing out of the Baptist movement of the 16th Century [5]. Weber’s thesis is as follows:
For, in conformity with the Old Testament and in analogy to the ethical valuation of good works, asceticism looked upon the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself as highly reprehensible; but the attainment of it as a fruits of labour in a calling was a sign of God’s blessing. And even more important: the religious valuation of restless, continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, as the highest means to asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of that attitude towards life which we have here called the spirit of capitalism.” [6]
This made for a potent combination of believers who pursued success in the marketplace and at the same time were not self-indulgent. Weber demonstrated that these groups achieved financial success beyond the norms of their respective host communities. Weber argues that the fusing of a sense of calling within an economic system by these ascetic Protestants became a fundamental building block of capitalist societies. Weber’s famous analysis identifies the importance of calling in the marketplace as a fundamental element within influential Protestant denominations.
The Protestant Work Ethic is blamed (not without reason) for much of the anti-leisure attitudes (the so-called "Calvinist feeling that work alone is good") [7]. The popular version of the Protestant Work Ethic involves the following beliefs: idleness is sinful; industriousness is a religious ideal [8]; waste is a vice; frugality is a virtue; leisure is earned by work and a preparation for work; complacency and failure are outlawed; ambition and success are sure signs of God's favour; wealth is a special sign of God's favour [9].
Some of this stems directly from the Protestant Reformation. The magisterial reformers (Luther and Calvin) not only "reformed" the way in which people came to know their acceptance with God [10] but also their attitude to the world and work in particular. Lutheranism enjoins the entrepreneur to consider his economic activity as a calling (“Beruf”), though according to Weber the Lutheran's commitment to his worldly calling/station does not involve strenuous effort to master, rationalize and innovate [11]. As Weber viewed the matter, something more would be needed to ratchet up the believer's intensity to a passion for entrepreneurship. Gianfranco Poggi puts it this way: "Only a religious vision that turns worldly reality into a field of experimentation, and the individual into a 'tensed-up being', relentlessly working that field in the pursuit of a dynamic design, could plausibly be said to have offered such an inspiration." [12] According to Weber this is what Calvinism supplied.
Weber argued that for capitalism to flourish there must be both intensive activity and the imperative to save. The rise of both elements can be traced to Calvinism Weber claimed. As to the first, with the closing of the monastery door as a way to prove one's merit before God, fervent believers were enjoined to prove themselves by intensive work in the world in their calling. For the second, Calvinism taught self-denial and self-sacrifice, the very delayed gratification that is essential for accumulating capital. The theological underpinning for this, according to Weber, was supplied by the twin doctrines of Calvinism—the transcendence of God and predestination [13]. These allowed believers to operate in the world as God's instrument and in the process to gain some assurance of their own status as the elect [14]. The first doctrine "cranks up the tension" and the second "opens the believer to the world." [15] "Thus... all the Calvinist faithful's ethical eggs were placed in the basket of his calling." [16]
The attainment of [wealth] as a fruit of labour in a calling was a sign of God's blessing. And even more important: the religious valuation of restless continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, as the highest medium of asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of that attitude toward life which we have here called the spirit of capitalism. [17]
Implicit in the Calvinism Weber studied is a particular concept of the stewardship of money, only potentially useful, and of time, involving a methodological attitude to time that monitors the environment and makes adjustments, maximizing the time. [18] In contrast to Catholicism which proposed extensive interpenetration of the sacred and profane discouraging "the faithful from treating the latter as a religiously neutral field, deprived of ritual significance, and open to his 'tinkering' and rearranging," [19] Calvinism led believers to adopt an ethical posture (an inner-worldly asceticism in the context of intensive 'tinkering' in the world [20]. When you combine the attainment of wealth (acquisitive activity) as the fruit of labour in a calling as a sign of God's blessing with the limitation of consumption (saving) the inevitable result is the accumulation of capital [21]. This is typified in part by the famous words of the evangelical John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, in his sermon on the use of money: "Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can." [22] Poggi's conclusion is apt: Weber's argument is partial (addressing a distinctive part of a large historical problem) [23], complex ("it comprises a number of discrete points, connected by a correspondingly high number of steps or transitions") and momentous. [24]
Critiquing the “Protestant Ethic”
Weber's thesis is hard to verify empirically but, as the British economist Brian Griffiths notes, "the Protestant ethic thesis turns out to be a specific example of a far more general thesis: namely that the economic process is related in an important way to cultural and religious values." [25] "The Protestant Work Ethic" [26] could be more accurately described as the "post-Protestant work ethic". Weber rarely quotes Calvin [27] relying heavily on his observations that capitalism seems to have flourished better in Protestant countries than Catholic [28], a matter explained differently by David Landes [29]. Weber also relied heavily on the later Puritans, such as Richard Baxter [30], Pietists in England and Holland, Methodists [31] and deists like Benjamin Franklin [32].
Among the nominally religious and early post-Protestants, people moved away from dependence on the sufficiency of Christ's work for salvation and, during the industrial revolution, invested work with more religious significance as a means of proving one's acceptance with God. The vocation of rest (given proper emphasis by Calvin and the early Puritans) was lost. [33] Weber correctly observed that what ensued in the Reformed Churches and sects was a "reversion to the doctrine of salvation by works" rather than justification by grace through faith: God helps those who help themselves. [34] But Weber was incorrect to conclude that Lutheranism "on account of its doctrine of grace, lacked a psychological sanction of systematic conduct to compel the methodical rationalization of life." [35]
Both Luther and Calvin recalled people to the foundational document of the Christian faith (the Bible) and to the essential gospel experience. Thus they argued that the primary spiritual posture—and therefore the psychological force for life in this world—was neither existential anxiety (fear that one might not be approved by God) nor self-justification. Rather, a genuine Christian approach is a combination of gratitude to God and love of neighbour. This is what should make people "tick". While these genuine motives do not create "tensed up" people they do provide an empowering motivation for passionate and creative work, a motivation that can be sustained indefinitely. The magisterial reformers, Luther and Calvin, addressed the issue of calling in relationship to all dimensions of life, including work. In the post-Protestantism which Weber studied at the turn of the twentieth century, he identified Protestant strains within Western society. In Weber’s context spiritual impact would have come from institutionalized, religious sources. Now, individuals can pursue meaning through entrepreneurship without any connection to organized religion. It remains for us to consider what Christian theology has to say about work ethic.
On the Theology of Work Ethic
Theology is not a circle but an ellipse. Unlike a circle, which has a centre, an ellipse has two centres. And theology has a double reference: first to the timeless word of God and second to the contemporary situation. For that reason a historical summary of work attitudes and grappling with the contemporary situation is critical.
A Short History of Work Attitudes
For the ancient Greeks work was a curse [36]. There was even one city—Thebes—
which passed a law prohibiting its citizens to work. Who did the work? Slaves. Meanwhile the citizens enjoyed friendship and politics. The ancient philosopher Plotinus put it this way, concerning the wise person’s life:
The pleasure demanded for the Sage’s life cannot be in the enjoyments of the licentious or in any gratifications of the body…. Let the earth-bound man be handsome and powerful and rich, and so apt to this world that he may rule the entire human race: still there can be no envying of him, the fool of such lures… the tyranny of the body… will work down or wear away by inattention to its claims…. [37]
In contrast the ancient Jews viewed work as part of God’s purpose in creation though by the time of Jesus the Jewish community had a kind of dualism in placing the study of Torah as the highest human calling. The Jew Jesus, however, was a carpenter, probably even an entrepreneur since the Greek word used to describe his work can mean someone who designs and builds a house or a boat. And the apostle Paul, a Jew in the biblical tradition, was a maker of tents and took his occupation into his apostolic calling rather than simply regarding his work as a means of “getting bread.” That notwithstanding, the early church was profoundly influenced by the environment surrounding, in particular the Greek view of work. And it was not long before a two-level spirituality developed, the higher for the priest and pastor and lower for those who married and worked in the world. About 300 AD Eusebius the historian wrote:
Two ways of life were thus given by the law of Christ to his Church. The one is above nature, and beyond common human living; it admits not marriage, child-bearing, property nor the possession of wealth, but wholly and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind, it devotes itself to the service of God alone… such then is the perfect form of the Christian life. And the other, more humble, more human, permits man to join in pure nuptials, and to produce children… it allows them to have minds for farming, for trade, and the other more secular interests as well as for religion…. A kind of secondary grade of piety is attributed to them. [38]
Not surprisingly throughout the early centuries even great church leaders such as Augustine distinguished between the active life and the contemplative life, the latter being superior. In the Middle Ages this became institutionalized in the two-level spirituality, the higher for the priest, pastor, monk and nun and lower for tradespeople, politicians and homemakers. It is easily seen that Martin Luther was reacting against Medieval Christianity, particularly the monastery which he saw as a “salvation machine.” One went into the monastery as a superior way to prove he or she was saved. Luther closed that door, and that as Max Weber saw rightly, opened the door to proving one’s calling in the secular realm. We have seen, though, that it was not primarily anxiety that is the Protestant motivation for work.
In fairness to the church in the Middle Ages there were countering voices than the standard two-level approach to work ethic. Saint Benedict laid down his monastic rule for a balanced life, including manual labour, intellectual exercise and prayer. While the Benedictine motto—work and prayer (labora et ora) suggested that he envisioned a balance beneath his work ethic, even hinting that work was itself a form of prayer (labora est ora).
Enter Martin Luther, and John Calvin. Now the religious aura which previously had surrounded the clerical vocation permeated all worldly tasks. Calvin similarly challenged believers to “work, to perform, to develop, to progress, to change, to choose, to be active, and to overcome, until the day of their death or the return of their Lord.” It must be said, however, that Calvin’s emphasis on a “secret call”: known only to the pastor—the preacher of the Word and administrator of the sacraments—a call to which the church is not witness but known only to the person himself or herself (and God), had the effect of transferring the aura of the Catholic priest who administers the “Christ event” in the Mass to the Protestant pastor who administers the “Christ event” in the proclamation of the Word of God. Essentially most of the modern church has followed Calvin rather than Luther and the two-level spirituality is very much with us. But there are other influences.
The Industrial Revolution routinized much labour and took much of the labour out of the home. The high work ethic encouraged by the Puritans and the English reformers, began to make sense only to those in the professional and middle class occupations. What about the person who does the same repetitive task on a steam-driven machine from dawn to dark, as memorialized in Charlie Chaplin’s film “Modern Times?” One of the ancestors in the Stevens family went into the mine in Wales before sun-up and came home after dark, never seeing the light of day. Not surprisingly Karl Marx grappled with worker alienation, though, in an ironic twist of work ethic history, he argued that people should find the meaning of their lives by the work of their hands and minds. In one way Marx was a precursor to the human potential approach to work.
Work in the Asian World
Much of what has been written above applies mostly to the Western world. But the East has had its own history of work ethic. In his thesis on “Chinese Entrepreneurship in Singapore,” Clive Lim identifies three key influences in the Chinese work ethic: Confucianism, the centrality of the family and ethnicity [39]. On Confucianism, he notes how many Chinese concepts such as family, education, teacher, scholar, scholarship, refinement, humility, civility, order, obedience, the father, women, oppression, repression of impulse, conformity, timidity, and weakness are all linked to his teachings. The emphasis on family also relates to the teaching of Confucius. He stressed filial piety in the family and proper conduct or li (propriety, rites) in society. Consequently, pleasing parents, honoring ancestors, providing for one’s parents are a fundamental part of the Asian work ethic [40]. Not to provide for one’s family or to provide improperly is a shame. Within Confucianism there is a hierarchy of occupations with the philosopher and teacher at the top and the merchant at the bottom, though that is quickly changing. The family’s capacity to provide for its members was in proportion to the loyalties and contributions it could command from its members. Confucianism as the state religion served to reinforce acceptance by all that the basic building block of society is the family.
The third and last key factor of influence identified by Lim is the strong identification with their ethnicity. This is the result of living in foreign social environments that were resentful, and at times openly hostile, which forced these Chinese to defensively rely on their own resources. This hostile environment created a natural tendency for the overseas Chinese to identify with China and derive a cultural identity from it.
Globally, though mainly in the West, the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen a shift in work consciousness. As mentioned above there are five paradigm shifting influences: (1) De-institutionalization—the trend away from organizations which establish creeds and codes; (2) Secular Humanism—which promote the humanist alternative to traditional faith-based worldviews; (3) Post-Modernity—which is characterized by the rejection of all universal theories, truth-claims and teleological readings of history, metanarratives; (4) The New Age Movement—which is a spiritual movement seeking to transform individuals and society through mystical union with a dynamic cosmos; (5) The Human Potential Movement—which proposes that people can unlock their own extraordinary potential, avoiding negative thoughts and seizing responsibility for their own success. As we will show shortly people do not work today because they have a sense of holy calling but mostly in order to realize their own potential. They try to find their meaning in their work rather than bringing meaning to it. The phenomenon of workaholism is especially revelatory. As a counterpoise to working out of a sense of calling workaholism is the attempt to find ultimate meaning in one’s labor often to satisfy unmet needs from one’s childhood. This expression of drivenness is essentially religious and spiritual. It is an idolatry, if you can define idolatry as making someone or something one’s ultimate concern rather than the One who is ultimate. This takes us back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were tempted to nail their desires to the tree, their provision and pleasure, rather than to the giver of the Garden.
This short history of work ethic, all too short, is, however, necessary to wrestle theologically with what makes people “tick” in the workplace. Theology as we have seen wrestles with the timeless Word of God and contemporary situations. But the contemporary situation, especially for Christians and Jews, is influenced by traditions and religious systems. To that end we must also explore some confession approaches to work ethic.
Confessional Approaches to Work Ethic
As a backdrop of a biblical work ethic, we will first examine the Jewish and Catholic approaches. The Jewish work ethic is based on imitating God, cooperating with God in the development and care of creation and people. A Jewish midrash (commentator) puts it this way: “’Abraham and Sarah created souls in Haran’ (Gen 12:5). Isn’t that God’s job? By enlarging and uplifting the lives of those about them, they actually became their creators. In this way, they imitated God.” [41] In the same way, “God’s clothing of Adam and Eve was the first mitzvah in history, and the first act of hesed, ‘lovingkindness’, mentioned in the Torah. Thus, every act of making, providing and selling clothing is an imitation of God.” [42] So human beings do what God does; they are God’s partner and they, “pick up where God left off.” [43]
The Catholic perspective is well represented by Thomas Aquinas. He is often quoted for his fourfold purpose of work in Summa Theologia: (1) the acquisition of necessary livelihood; (2) avoidance of the capital sin of idleness; (3) subjucation of the rebellious flesh by asceticism; (4) almsgiving made possible through an abundance of material goods [44]. In his preface to Cardinal Wyszynski’s All You Who Labor, Josef Cardinal Glemp, primate of Poland, says work (1) is a gift of God, (2) an ennobling of the human person, (3) a form of man’s cooperation with the Creator, (4) and a kind of social service [45]. More recent papal encyclicals emphasize that human beings co-create with God in all the human tasks undertaken in their world. Cardinal Wyszynski expresses this in these words: “Human work is, moreover, a further stage of God’s creative work; it is the process that completes the act of creation. God conceived the world in such a way that he gave us in enormous measure the power of taking the act of creation one stage further toward that degree of perfection that He had in mind.” [46] Work is co-creating with God. Work is also the place of suffering through which your salvation is worked out and your sanctification obtained. This is the most difficult dimension of the Catholic work ethic. It so easily seen as “salvation by works,” rather than working out one’s salvation in the context of work. Wyszynski says, “In this toil is the sure remedy for the fruits of Original Sin, and the salvation of one’s soul through the burden of work. For this cleansing toil, we should thank God.” [47] Luther asserted that there was a cross to be taken up in the workplace, that the difficulties of work are an arena of spiritual growth and identification with Christ. [48] But this is not the same thing as saying that sins are expiated through our daily work. One must remember, however, that in Catholic literature the term “salvation” is used in contexts where Protestants normally use the word “sanctification.” Undoubtedly, and in spite of the emphasis of Vatican II, the most holy work in the Catholic tradition remains that of a priest or monk and nun.
As we have seen there are really two Protestant work ethics, the original in Luther—who affirmed that the work of a nun or priest is no more holy than the common labourer—and the “Protestant work ethic,” popularized by Max Weber. The Orthodox or Eastern Church, as expressed consummately by Alexander Schmemann in For the Life of the World, maintains that human beings are priests of creation, priests ministering to God, to creation and to one another. [49]
A biblical work ethic addresses the questions: Why work? Why work hard? Or not? And why work well? To this the Bible gives ten rich answers. [50]
Ten Good Reasons for Getting into our Work (a Good Work Ethic)
First, we work to glorify God. The apostle Paul says that even slaves are actually serving Christ (Col 3:22-25; Eph 6:5-8). Glorifying God does not mean only singing hymns, spiritual songs and doing stated Christian work, but bringing honour to our Creator by the way we work and what we actually do. Bringing glory to God is the master concept of the Christian life. Work then becomes worship. In our work we have an opportunity to love God. This is fundamental to our posture before God, as Jesus taught (Mark 12:29-34). As Cardinal Wyszynski said, “If we love God how could we not tell him while we work?”
Second, we work to be partners with God. We are mandated in Genesis as part of the human vocation to serve God and God’s purposes in unfolding the potential of creation (Gen 1:26-28) and bringing in the kingdom of God on earth. The Garden was unfinished. We are God’s partner in bringing to conclusion its developmment, and we have not yet done that.
Third, we work to express gifts and talents through our work. And in this we find joy, the joy of making a difference (Gen 2:19). We are also accountable to God for what we do with our gifts and talents (Matt 25:19).
Fourth, we work to provide for ourselves and families (2 Thess 3:6-13; 1 Thess 4:9-12). If at all possible we are not to be dependent on others for our livelihood.
Fifth, we work as a witness showing something of God’s goodness and grace to those who do not yet have faith (1 Thess 4:9-12). Paul says that through our work we win the respect of outsiders. Work then is part of our mission, and means of evangelism, a concrete sharing of faith.
Sixth, we work to serve our neighbor. Work is a means of loving our fellow human beings through providing goods or services. This the second great commandment Jesus taught (Mark 12:9-24). As the quotation from Luther above suggests, if we are motivated by love it does not matter whether we do a “great” work or a little one.
Seventh, we work to assist the poor and needy. The surplus of what we actually need and provide through work can be shared with others who are in need (Eph 4:28). This also is love-work.
Eighth, we work to advance the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is both here and coming, now and not yet. But it is the dynamic rule of God in all of life; it is God’s shalom for people and creation. Contrary to much so-called “Christian” teaching, we advance the kingdom not just by evangelism and edification (the kind of work pastors do) but also by providing goods and services to others, as well as grappling with the principalities and powers. All good work is kingdom work.
Ninth, we work to grow spiritually in Christlikeness. Alan Richardson in his classic Biblical Doctrine of Work says, “The human being is so made that not only can he not satisfy his material needs without working but also he cannot satisfy his spiritual needs, or fulfil his function as a human being.” [51] Work is an arena of spiritual challenges, where the seven deadly sins are manifested most explicitly. But it is also the place where the Spirit-fruit is revealed [52]. When we work we have an opportunity to observe ourselves, even to deal with ourselves, our Achilles heel, our need to be needed, our need for status, or our need to be in control. Work is an arena for learning patience, for gaining wisdom, even from our mistakes, for learning how to pray as we are often pushed beyond the limits of our own abilities.
Tenth, we work to experience joy. A British canon, Stanley Evans, said, “The Christian is a controlled drunk, purposively intoxicated with the joy of the life which is perpetually created by God himself.” [53] Joy is more than mere happiness, though it is often confused with it. Happiness is situational. Joy does not depend in the context. Joy is a God-infusion, a God-exhilaration, a God-gift. Joy is a part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). Nehemiah counselled the Israelites in a difficult situation to find joy in God and be strengthened by that joy (Neh 8:10). God is not a dead-pan autocrat or a celestial kill-joy. God is the most joyful being in the universe. And those who have a relationship with God are joyful.
There is the joy of working. We were made for it. Then there is joy in work. Work involves the use of gifts and talents, everything from organizing, envisioning, inventing, implementing, beautifying, expressing, communicating and evaluating. All talents are from God. They are not “natural.” The exercise of these talents brings joy. “God made me fast,” said the Olympic runner in Chariots of Fire, “and when I run I feel the pleasure of God.” Then there is joy through work. All good work is a means of serving and loving our neighbor, whether the neighbor is near or far, visible or invisible. Then there is the joy of doing God’s work. The multifaceted human occupations all are forms of “doing the Lord’s work.” More still, there is the joy of consciously working for God. And finally there is the joy of knowing that some of our work done in Christ and for God will last into eternity and form part of the new heaven and new earth (1 Cor 15:58; 1 Cor 3:12-15). And more joy still, in the renewed creation we will work with greater joy than we have in this life (Isa 65:21-22).
So why do you work?
For Reflection and Discussion
1.What was the work ethic operative in your home in your growing up years?
2. What is the work ethic that has dominated the culture of your own country or people group?
3. What is the work ethic that is taught—either overtly or covertly—in your church or religious group?
4. Of the ten reasons for work listed above, which ones are actually operative in your life, in your business, or in your community?
References:
Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, vol. 2, no. 42, Ancient Christian Writers, trans. John Hammond Taylor (New York, NY: Newman Press, 1982), 46.
Some of this article was first published in R. Paul Stevens, Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 164-183.
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958).
Michael Novak, a theologian of business enterprise, notes there are at least two good reasons why Weber has earned an immortal place in intellectual history. First, "he identified something new in economic history and glimpsed...its moral and religious dimensions. Second, he suggested in advance why Marxism, both as an explanatory theory and a vision of paradise, was doomed to fail: Its resolute materialism excluded the human spirit. Michael Novak, The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Catholicism (New York: The Free Press, 1993), 9.
Weber, The Protestant Work Ethic, 95.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 172.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 42.
Weber, quoting Richard Baxter, notes that "Waste of time is the first and in principle deadliest of sins" (Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 157).
Adrian Furnham, The Protestant Work Ethic: The Psychology of Work-Related Beliefs and Behaviours (London: Routledge, 1990), 13; Robert Banks, “Work Ethic, Protestant,” in The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity, ed. Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 1129-1135.
The Reformation was essentially for Luther a matter of soteriology, salvation, and not ecclesiology. It is often noted that Luther, and for that matter Calvin, did not provide the ecclesiology (church structure) to contain the "new wine."
Gianfranco Poggi, Calvinism and the Capitalist Spirit: Max Weber's Protestant Ethic (London: Macmillan, 1983), 41, 60-61. Weber points to Luther's many statements against usury or interest in any form as evidence that Luther had a more traditionalist approach: a person does not by nature wish to earn more and more money (Weber 1958, 60,82). Weber argues that the Bible actually favours this traditionalist view, the Old Testament in particular, this view being exemplified in the words of Jesus: "Give us this day our daily bread" (83).
Poggi, Calvinism, 61.
Weber argues that predestination was the most characteristic doctrine of Calvinism which was the centre of the great political and cultural struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the Netherlands, England and France. But in support of this Weber quotes the Westminster Confession of 1647: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death" (Chap III). Milton's well-known opinion of this "double predestination" (arguably not from Calvin) was "Though I may be sent to Hell for it, such a God will never command my respect" (Weber , The Protestant Ethic, 101). A more scriptural expression of the matter was expressed by the novelist Charles Williams who maintained that no one is ever sent to hell; they insist on going. In a note on the subject Weber carefully explains that "we are not studying the personal views of Calvin, but Calvinism, and that in the form to which it had evolved by the end of the sixteenth and in the seventeenth centuries in the great areas where it had a decisive influence and which were at the same time the home of capitalistic culture" (Weber 1958, note 7, 220). Weber argues that both Luther and Calvin had a double God: the fearsome God of the Old Testament and the loving Father of the New. With Luther, so Weber argues, the New Testament kept the upper hand; with Calvin, the transcendent God of the Old won out (Weber 1958, note 12, 221). While an attractive explanation for the cultural events which followed the Reformation, Weber lacks support from the Reformers themselves for this view.
Poggi, Calvinism, 65. Weber notes that in Islam the related doctrine is not predestination but predetermination" and was applied to fate in this world, not in the next. In consequence the most important thing, the proof of the believer in predestination, played no part in Islam" (Weber 1958, note 36, 227).
Poggi, Calvinism, 70.
Poggi, Calvinism, 66.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 172.
On this point Weber observes, correctly, that the Reformation recovered the holiness of everyday life (in contrast to the contemplative life), though he makes the case as a matter of Church control: "The Reformation meant not the elimination of the Church's control over everyday life, but rather the substitution of a new form of control for the previous one. It meant the repudiation of a control which was very lax, at the time scarcely perceptible in practice, and hardly more than formal, in favour of a regulation of the whole of conduct which, penetrating to all departments of private and public life, was infinitely burdensome and earnestly enforced" (Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 36).
Poggi, Calvinism, 57.
Poggi, Calvinism, 56. Poggi's own critique of Weber raises the question of whether the "spirit of capitalism" was the necessary precondition for the development of modern capitalism (Poggi, Calvinism, 48).
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 172.
We are to gain all we can without compromising our life (food and sleep), health (especially in mind) or hurting our neighbour: "We cannot devour the increase of [the neighbour's] lands, by gaming, by overgrown bills....We cannot, consistent with brotherly love, sell our goods below the market price; we cannot study to ruin our neighbour's trade in order to advance our own...sell anything that tends to impair health...by ministering, suppose, either directly or indirectly, to his unchastity or intemperance.... Gain all you can by honest industry. Use all possible diligence in your calling. Lose no time. If you understand yourself, and your relation to God and man, you know you have none to spare. If you understand your particular calling, as you ought, you have no time that hangs upon your hands. Every business will afford employment sufficient for every day and every hour" (John Wesley, "The Use of Money", in Stackhouse et al, ed. On Moral Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 194-197.)
Brian Griffiths considers the multiple factors that were essential for a capitalistic economic system to emerge from feudalism The Creation of Wealth: A Christian’s Case for Capitalism (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1284), 94.
Poggi, Calvinism, 79, mine.
Griffiths, The Creation of Wealth, 31.
Of the many critiques of Weber significant studies include Richard H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1938); Kurt Samuelsson, Religion and Economic Action (London: Heinemann, 1961); Gianfranco Poggi, Calvinism and the Capitalist Spirit: Max Weber's Protestant Ethic (London: Macmillan Press, 1983).
In one end note where Weber does refer directly to Calvin's writings he remarks, significantly, "Calvin himself most emphatically denies that works were indications of favour before God, although he, like the Lutherans, considered them the fruits of belief (Inst., III,2,37,38). The actual evolution to the proof of faith through works, which is characteristic of asceticism, is parallel to a gradual modification of the doctrines of Calvin. As with Luther, the true church was first marked off primarily by purity of doctrine and sacraments, but later the disciplina came to be placed on an equal footing with the other two" (Weber 1958, note 41, 228).
Weber finds the smaller participation of Catholics in the modern business life of Germany all the more remarkable in that generally minorities are driven to economic activity by their disadvantaged state, a factor he observes among the Poles in Russia, the Huguenots in France under Louis XIV, the Nonconformists and Quakers in England and the Jews for two thousand years (Weber 1958, 39).
David Landes, "Religion and Enterprise: The Case of the French Textile Industry," in Edward C. Carter II, Robert Forster and Joseph Moody, eds. Enterprise and Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth-Century France (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1976). Landes explores the phenomenon of relatively slower development of industry in France, in comparison with England, was not due so much to Catholicism but the fact of family firms whose primary concerns were safety, continuity and privacy. It can be argued, however, that even these were an expression of catholic culture.
Weber acknowledges his dependence on Baxter's Christian Directory in an end note summarizing, "This reminiscent of Pascal's psychological interpretation of the impulse of acquisition and ascetic activity as a means to deceive recommendation of worldly activity as a means of overcoming one's own feeling of moral inferiority is oneself about one's own moral worthlessness. For him the belief in predestination and the conviction of the original sinfulness of everything pertaining to the flesh resulted only in renunciation of the world and the recommendation of contemplation as the sole means of lightening the burden of sin and attaining certainty of salvation" (Weber, The Protestant Ethic, note 47, 229).
Weber notes: "The name in itself shows what impressed contemporaries as characteristic of its adherents: the methodical, systematic nature of conduct for the purpose of attaining the certido salutis" (Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 139), though Wesley's "methodism" was primarily pragmatic, a way of implementing practical Christianity through the class system rather than a way of achieving certainty of salvation.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 50, 53, 180. In support of the alleged Protestant "duty of the individual toward the increase of his capital which is assumed as an end in itself" Weber quotes Franklin: "He that loses five shillings, not only loses that sum, but all the advantage that might be made by turning it in dealing, which by the time that a young man becomes old, will amount to a considerable sum of money" (Weber 1958, 50-51). Later Weber argues that in answer to why money should be made Franklin quotes Proverbs 22:9 "See it thou a man diligent in his business?" [NIV "skilled in his work"] "He shall stand before kings", a matter Weber maintains was drummed into Franklin by his Calvinist father (Weber 1958, 53). Bob Goudzwaard's definition of deism is worth noting: "the conception that God has created the world in such a perfect manner that immediately afterwards he could afford to go into early retirement." Capitalism & Progress: A Diagnosis of Western Society, trans. Josina Van Nuis Zylstra (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 20.
Banks, “Work Ethic-Protestant,” 1129. As is well known, Adam Smith accounted for the economic process in a typically deist manner by attributing the harmony created when each person pursues their own ends but unwittingly serves a general good because of an "invisible hand". As Goudzwaard says, "the invisible hand is the deistic version of the role of God's providence" (1979, 22). Deism provided the philosophical basis for the science of economics since it envisioned the economic cosmos as controlled by natural laws than could be subjected to human analysis.
Weber , The Protestant Ethic, 115. It is this thought that becomes central in the famous "self-help" books of Samuel Smiles (Travers 1987).
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 1958, 128.
For an excellent review of the history of work see Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World : Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice and the Design of Human Work (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1990).
“Plotinus-On True Happiness,” in Max Stackhouse et al, eds. On Moral Business (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 138-139.
Eusebius: The Ecclesiastical History, trans. Kirsopp Lake (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953) Vol 2, II, XVII, sections 3-10, 147-57, italics mine.
Clive Lim, “Chinese Entrepreneurship in Singapore: A Study of Eight Chinese Entrepreneurs in Singapore,” a thesis submitted to the faculty of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Ministry degree (Singapore, unpublished), May 2011.
Wing Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), 15.
Jeffrey Salkin, Being God’s Partner: How to Find the Hidden Link Between Spirituality and Your Work (Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994), 61.
Salkin, Being God’s Partner, 65.
Salkin, Being God’s Partner, 95-96.
M.D. Chenu, The Theology of Work, quoted in Alfons Auer, Open to the World: An Analysis of Lay Spirituality (Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1985), 192.
Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, All You Who Labor: Work and the Sanctification of Daily Life(trans. J. Ardle McArdle, Manchester, NH: Sophia Press, 1995), ix.
Wyszynski, All You Who Labor, 52.
Wyszysnski, All You Who Labor, 86.
Marc Kolden, “Luther on Vocation,” Word and World (Fall 1983), Vol 3, No 4:382-290
Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1988), 15.
The following ten statements and a few other thoughts made in this article are also found in Chapter five of Richard Goossen and R. Paul Stevens, Entrepreneurship: A Christian Perspective (Little Britain, ON: Castle Quay Books, 2026), 76-79.
Alan Richardson, The Biblical Doctrine of Work (London: SCM Press, 1954), 22.
See R. Paul Stevens and Alvin Ung, Taking Your Soul to Work (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011).
Quoted in Kenneth Leech, True Prayer: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980), 103.
