Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism

Max Weber’s work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, argues that religion supports capitalism through the way its values shape the society that a worker is exposed to. This theory, supported through the analyzation of the Calvinist religion, argues that success in capitalism and being a good worker are signs of righteousness. A field experiment, conducted by myself, came to similar realization on the interdependency of religion and capitalism. On February 28th, 2016, I visited the Church of Scientology in Phoenix, Arizona. I researched the church and its practices, prior to going there. Despite my heavy bias due to extended research on the finances of the Church of scientology, Weber’s theory on religions interdependency with

Through marking activities that do not contribute to the progression of capitalism as bad or a sin, and marking those that do as doing good in God’s name, it morally entraps the individual to focus on succeeding at capitalism. This creates a social stigma around going against capitalism, seeing those who fail or disregard capitalism’s authority as sinners. Weber states, “Not leisure and enjoyment, but only activities serve to increase the glory of God, according to the definite manifestations of His will.” (Weber,155) Through this, activities that aren’t directly contributing to being a skilled, successful worker, are not only a sign of your predetermined destination to hell, but also that you are sinning in this life as well, and are not a good child of God. A good worker would devote all his time to God, which intern means devoting all of his life to capitalism. Weber states, “Waste of time is thus the first and in principle the deadliest sin.” (Weber, 155) Since time is a form of capital, wasting capital and not contributing to the capitalist machine is considered a sin. So a good child of God would be one that contributes the most to Capitalism, while anyone who does not participate as an efficient worker in the capitalist system is looked down upon by the religious community. Therefore, through social pressures propelled by the church and the

Our closer interaction with the materials began with the personality test. The test was described to measure your abilities to “determine your future success and happiness” (Appendix 2) This description creates a dirrect correlation between money and goodness. During the consultation of my results, a marker was placed on my happiness score, and said that I was depressed. During the consultation, the assistant said, “That I was depressed and that scientology could help me.” (Peña, Field Notes, 3) Through the wording of seeing success as a good quality, and depression or lack of happiness as a bad one, the church could invoke a sentiment that money mean happiness. They argued that in being depressed, one is not able to function at their optimum state, and has their work life affected. The individuals who are at the top of their program are alleviated of depression, and are also financially well off. This relation leads one to believe that one will have a strong standing economically if one is able to alleviate any issues that the church says that impede your life. The services offered by the church also cost money, with added higher significance to their value. As the church member showed me over $250 dollars of materials that would improve my functionality, she said “ that this would be the start, and if I took the classes that she suggested, I would be able to