Temat: Characterization of the Protestant ethic and its role in...

Protestantism in its original, strict sense was the group of princes and imperial cities who in 1529 signed a protestation against the edict of Worms forbidding the Lutheran teachings in the whole empire. From there, the word Protestant in German speaking areas still refers to Lutheran churches in contrast to Reformed churches, while the common designation for all churches originating from the Reformation is Evangelical
In a broader sense of the word, Protestantism is the movement in Western Christianity, that broke with the Roman Catholic Church as a result of the influence of Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran churches, and John Calvin, founder of the Calvinist movement. A third major branch of the Reformation, which encountered conflict with both the Catholics and other Protestants, is sometimes called the Radical Reformation, or Anabaptists. Some Western, non-Catholic, Christian groups are labeled as Protestant, even if the sect acknowledges no historical connection to Luther, Calvin, or the Anabaptists.
Protestantism rejects the notion that divine authority is channeled through one particular human institution or person such as the Roman Catholic Pope. Protestants look elsewhere for the authority of their faith. Most of them stress the Bible - the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament - as the source and the norm of their teaching.

Origins of Protestantism: Although reform movements have been a feature of the Christian church throughout its history and were particularly evident in the 14th and 15th centuries, Protestants generally trace their separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 1500s. It is sometimes called the magisterial Reformation because it initially proposed numerous radical revisions of the doctrinal standards of the Roman Catholic Church (called the magisterium). The protest erupted suddenly, in many places at once, with distinctive national characteristics in the various regions in which it arose.
Most Protestants date the beginning of their movement to 1517, when the German monk Martin Luther posted for debate a series of theses that challenged Roman Catholic teaching. Protestantism took its name from the "Protestatio" issued by reformers at the Diet of Speyer in 1529.
After this first stage of the Reformation, following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere. The separation of the Church of England from Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and completed in1536, brought England alongside the Reformation; but it proceeded there more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe, alternating between traditional and Protestant sympathies for centuries, progressively forging a stable compromise. Thus, the West was permanently divided into Catholic and Protestant. From 1607, when Anglicans arrived in Virginia, until late in the 19th century, after large - scale immigration from southern Europe and Ireland, all of North America except Quebec was thought of as a largely Protestant domain.
Basic Theological Tenets
Four Latin slogans of the Protestant Reformation express the principal theological concerns.
• Solus Christus: Jesus Christ alone.
Jesus Christ is the only referent for adoration and worship. Some believe that Catholics worship saints as well, apparently from the prominent display of statues and images of the saints in Catholic churches and homes, but this belief is in error. Catholics honor saints, and worship God alone.
• Sola scriptura: Scripture alone.
Against the Catholic view which decided orthodoxy by interpretation of the writings of the Fathers and doctors of the church, through the decisions of councils and the declarations of the bishop of Rome, the Protestants argued that the Bible alone is the Word of God, self-interpreting, and the foundation and test of authority for the Church.
• Sola fide: Faith alone.
In contrast to the Roman Catholic system of meritorious works, of penance and indulgences, masses for the dead, the treasury of the merits of saints and martyrs, a ministering priesthood, and purgatory, the Protestants argued that every believer is a priest, called to be saints, and obtaining reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus Christ, alone.
• Sola gratia: Grace alone.
Against the Roman Catholic view that faith and works are necessary to preserve the state of grace freely given by God, the Reformers posited that salvation is a gift from God dispensed through Jesus Christ, regardless of merit - for no one deserves salvation.

Protestant Denominations
Protestants often refer to specific Protestant churches and groups as denominations to imply that they are differently named parts of the whole church. Some denominations, though, are less accepting of others, and some are so unorthodox as to be questioned by most. But there are also denominations where the theological differences are very small. Other denominations are simply regional expressions of the same beliefs found in other places under other names. The actual number of distinct denominations is hard to calculate, but has been estimated to be in the tens of thousands. Various ecumenical movements have attempted cooperation or reorganization of Protestant churches, according to various models of union, but divisions continue to outpace unions. Most denominations claim to have a certain unity with other groups of Christians, but contain doctrines which fundamentally contradict each other. Among the most popular Protestant Families of Denominations are: Anabaptist, Anglican, Baptist, Calvinist, Lutheran, Methodist.

Two major Protestant denominations that influenced the capitalist movement:
● Lutheranism:
- people serve God through their work
- work as the universal base of society
- God assigned each person to his/her own place in the social hierarchy. We should work diligently in our own occupation.
- no superiority of one form of work over another
- a person’s vocation – equated as his calling; all callings of equal spiritual dignity.
- against profit-oriented systems; disapproval of commerce as an occupation; to accumulate wealth is a sin. Income – for basic needs only
● Calvinism:
- new theological doctrines + Luther’s ideas = NEW CONCEPT OF WORK
- revolutionary concept of predestination.
- the Elect: chosen by God to inherit eternal life; all others – unavoidably damned
- the consciousness of being the Elect – based on personal encounters with God
- the only evidence of being chosen - in daily life; success = sign from God
- indifferent and idle = damned
- active, austere, hard-working = God’s chosen
- to work is the will of God; all men, even the rich must therefore work
- the duty of men: to serve as God’s instruments on earth, to reshape the world in the fashion of the Kingdom of God, to become a part of the continuing process of His creation.
- Men are NOT to lust after wealth, possessions, or easy living, but to reinvest the profits of their labor into financing further ventures; earnings should be reinvested ad infinitum
- using profits to help others rise from lower level – violates God’s will; you can demonstrate that you among the Elect only through your LABOR
- selection of an occupation and pursuing it to achieve the greatest profit possible = religious duty
- the pursuit of unlimited profit encouraged – radical departure from the Christian beliefs.
- abandoning the family trade or profession not only allowed, but even a religious duty
- IT IS NOT INAPPROPRIATE TO SEEK AN OCCUPATION WHICH WOULD PROVIDE
THE GREATEST EARNINGS POSSIBLE
The Protestant ethic, also called the work ethic, is a code of morals based on the principles of thrift, discipline, hard work and individualism. The major formulator of the concept of the Protestant ethic was the German political philosopher Max Weber. HE NOTICED A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM.
Max WEBER: Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - written in 1905
- He tries to uncover and trace the forces in the West that caused people to abandon their traditional religious value orientation and encouraged them to develop a desire for acquiring goods and wealth.
- Capitalism developed historically as a result of a religious movement.
- Modern capitalism developed mainly in those areas of Europe where Calvinistic Protestantism had taken root early in the Protestant Reformation. CONCLUSION: a causal connection existed between the two. Effect of religion on economic life, but the reverse influences equally important.
- The doctrine of PREDESTINATION, central to Calvinism, and the image of the remote and unknowable Protestant God created intense anxieties in the individual regarding that person’s state of grace. Practical means of reducing those anxieties took the form of a systematic commitment to a calling, that is, to hard work, thrift and self-discipline, the material rewards of which were not consumed personally but saved and reinvested. The same qualities were required for success in the newly emerging capitalist economy.
- Success in the commercial world assured the people that they were in a state of grace because God “smiled” on their endeavors. Wealth - a sign that you are one of the God's elect; Encouragement for people to acquire wealth.
- the ethic of "godliness" through the humble dedication to one's beruf (calling/duty/task), means economic productivity higher in Protestant communities than in Catholic ones .
- In contrast, the upward-mobility that was possible in hierarchical Catholic society meant that a lot of people found themselves in jobs which they saw only as way-stations to higher and better positions, dedicating only a minimal or nominal attention to the given task as finding it either beneath their dignity or certainly not worth resigning to as their end in life.
- The higher productivity of Protestant communities was coupled with higher thriftiness. The sinfulness of expenditure and lavish display of earthly goods was a notable Protestant principle. The idea of "capitalist accumulation" was born directly out of the Protestant ethic, through its claim to productive dedication to beruf and thriftiness in consumption.
- The subsequent ethical legitimization of capitalist acquisitiveness in later society under the rubric of "greed is good" was simply a distorted statement of what was already a fact. In no sense (claims Weber) is the capitalist ethic of "greed" the creator of "capitalist society" but rather quite the opposite.
- 'Protestant ethic' - the famous 'work ethic' - the drive for economic success, the will to work hard, the habit of not spending on frivolous self-indulgence - all this, originating in theology, provided a 'spirit' for capitalism, the set of motivations and attitudes that led to rational investment of profits.
- While Weber does not believe that the protestant ethic was the only cause of the rise of capitalism, he regards it as the powerful force in fostering its emergence
Did Calvinism really cause/inspire capitalism? Or perhaps it simply did not (like other religions) obstruct the development of this movement? Is it possible at all that capitalism was brought into being by religious ideas? Whatever the answers, the idea of Protestant ethic had substantial influence in 20th-century history, sociology and political science. Some theorists even risk a thesis that the relative decline of capitalist economic influence in the United States was a result of deterioration in the Protestant ethic among the Americans.