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The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Third Edition

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The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is recognized as the central work of Max Weber's storied career and it (or the similar article he wrote about the U.S. situation titled The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism) is required reading in most social and economic theory courses. The core of the argument is that a theological understanding of work that originated in the Protestant Reformation developed in Calvinist and Protestant churches in such a way that it enabled (not caused) the rise of modern capitalism.

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of books and articles that have been written about or in response to this work, and despite being first published in the early 20th century (and translated 1930), debates still rage around its accuracy and relevance, with scholarly apologists on both sides. It can be dense at times, both because Weber refers frequently to theologians of the time and because German scholarly writing tends to be dense. However, Kalberg's new translation is not only accurate and more readable than the older Parson's translation, but he offers an excellent introduction, glossary, and suggestions for further reading.

What Weber's ideas most clearly demonstrate is not capitalism as it is seen by the the devout protestant or any derivation thereof, he clearly proposes that capitalism itself is founded and practiced solely on the moral and ethical teachings of the protestant refromation. Furthurmore, the continued presence of God or any other religious influence is secondary to the overall implications of their socio-political indoctronation.
Weber essentially argues, that it is protestantism's continued comitment to a vocational calling as compared to traditional catholic virtue of church commitment, that is the essential method of spiritual distinguishemnt.
It is aided by the virtualy simultanious growth of both capitalism and Protestantism that enabled capitalism to extend beyond simply a seclar practise and over-all "necissary evil," into a fully encompassing and consuming reflection of an individual's spiritual right of passage.
Evidence of Weber's theory is distributed widely through contemporary polotics, fully 20 of the top 30 industrailized nations are predominantly protestant. Even countries such as Japan that seemingly have had no protestant influence and have had success with a capitalist economy, inevitably, must submit themselves to Weber's theory because, Weber is not concerned pervasiveness protestant traditions, only with the occurence of protestant ideals.
This book, though highly debated and controversial, is a must read for anyone with the slightest interest in global context or concerned with capitalism metioric rise to power. With a growing Globalized capitalist system, Webers ideas undoubtedly will become increasingly more apperent as capitalism invades every nook and cranny of an increasingly shrinking world; will cultures with otherwise foreign or dissimilar beliefs and practices every really be able to accept the merits of capitalism if they must equally reconcile themselves with the ethical premises of protestantism?