Max Weber and Asceticism

Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism focuses on how religious asceticism and capitalism coexist and thrive by virtue of the presence of each other. Weber analyzes the four major sects of Protestantism and the different paths their respective theological evolution took. Weber makes the case that though each sect took a different path, they each arrived at some form of asceticism and that, further, this asceticism commonly found within the differing denominations is the perfect foil to the spirit, as Weber defines, of capitalism. Weber’s analysis of asceticism and capitalism makes it easy to see how today’s powerful business class can find a measure of self-justification for their exploitative and horrific actions.

The Calvinist preferred predestination as his means of denying any participation in reality and living the miserable life of the early Protestant. “The feeling of certainty,” writes Weber on page 101 of The Protestant Ethic, “that [God’s] grace is the sole product of an objective power, and not in the least to attributed to personal worth” led to a corresponding feeling of uncertainty about one’s expected behavior in the mortal sphere. Should one participate only so far as to subsist, or actively take part in the day to day economic pursuits of life? Calvinists came to a clever convolution of logic to allow themselves to simultaneously take part in life’s proceedings and also to make this participation evidence of God’s grace. The Calvinist faith stated that confirmation of God’s grace earthly success, and therefore it follows that God will help those who help themselves- the Calvinist “himself creates his own salvation, or, as would be more correct, the conviction of it” (Weber, p. 115).

The Pietist branch of the Protestant cult started much from the same roots of predestination, but evolved into a more emotional and terrestrially involved belief. The Pietists’ idea of grace was not the Calvinist one of a strict and unchanging nature, but one of a type that suggested that “grace is offered to all men, but for everyone either once at a definite moment in his life or at some moment for the last time” (Weber, p. 133). This on the one hand allowed for a more just-seeming god, which would, potentially at least, see the works of man on the earth and perhaps reward him with the chance of a heavenly eternity, but on the other hand demanded a far stricter adherence to what was seen as the appropriate actions of the Christian- after all, one never knew when the Lord would be watching.

The Methodists went in a direction of emotional intensity in their asceticism, such that the display of salvation became the antithesis of the Calvinist ideal. Where the Calvinist eked out a miserable existence of self-denial and control, the Methodist’s “attainment of repentance under certain circumstances involved an emotional struggle of such intensity as to lead to the most terrible ecstasies, which in America often took place in a public meeting” (Weber, p. 140). Anyone familiar with the lunatic actions of the snake-handling preacher or the insanity of speaking in tongues should be familiar with the “terrible ecstasies” Weber is referring to. There were those Methodists who had faith in the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, of course, and their belief was strikingly at odds with the contrary Methodist belief of spiritual rebirth in conversion. “The consciousness of grace which grew out of ascetic conduct in continual proof of faith” was anathema to predestination, as it implied that a single act of repentance could hold sway over what was, assumedly, already ordained by the Lord (Weber, p. 142). Either way, the Methodist enjoined to suppress any enjoyment of life, and instead, upon achieving salvation through conversion and rebirth, aimed for the “rational struggle of perfection” (Weber, p. 143).

The Baptist sects of Protestantism took the ideals of asceticism and ran with them to the point of extremes. The Baptist has a special and devout reverence for the concept of spiritual rebirth. Within this conceptual framework it was determined that the pleasures of the flesh were contrary to living in the grace of God, indeed, Baptists “repudiated all idolatry of the flesh, as a detraction from the reverence due to God alone” (Weber, p. 146). “A sharp break with all the enjoyment of life”, for the Baptist, is the indication of the devotion one must have to the Lord (Weber, p. 146). Only by denial of pleasure and participation in life could the Baptist find pleasure and let God know He was being thought of. God’s insecurity being a regular theme of the Bible (He’s killed a number of people for denying Him), this asceticism may have been as much self-protection as devotion.

Asceticism in the Protestant cults is a strong force and acts to perpetuate the interests of the ruling class and their system of exploitation. The ideal of God the Protestant holds dispenses His grace to those he sees fit to and withholds it from others. Labor is regarded as a form of asceticism, in that it denies the participant in it the ability, at least for the time the labor is performed, to take part in the details of life that may be displeasing to the Lord. The division of labor is seen as a natural extension of this belief, due to the consequence of specialization of labor leading, “since it makes the development of skill possible, to a quantitative and qualitative improvement in production, and thus serves the common good” (Weber, p. 161). The division of labor is, perhaps more importantly, an assistance to asceticism for the Protestant. The division of labor furthers specialization and thus furthers the theory of the divine calling to labor as needed in whatever sphere one is called to. “A man without a calling, says Weber, “lacks the systematic, methodical character which is… demanded by worldly asceticism” (ibid.). This asceticism wedded to one’s calling is the foundation of the justification of exploitation- after all, the rich man is only accepting his calling by acquiring riches. As long as there is no enjoyment of the riches, the rich man is fine.

The calling and predestination make their case for the perennial excuses of the wealthy of their actions in pursuit of profit. As has been noted above, but here expanded by Weber, “wealth is.. bad ethically only in so far as it is a temptation to idleness and sinful enjoyment of life [emphasis added], and its acquisition is bad only when it is with the purpose of later living merrily and without care” (Weber, p. 163). This passage illuminates the capitalist class, and the belief in predestination, perfectly- they have no concern for the survival of the species and the planet because to have such would imply a concern for comfort later on in life- not to mention potentially questioning, or asserting an influence on, the will of God. The will of God is shown to the capitalist in the amount of success in acquisition he has. This success, on the earthly plane, may be shown by the amount of material goods he attains. The attainment of such goods is the end result of the calling, because, as we already know, to enjoy them would be tantamount to idolatry. “Man is only a trustee of the goods which have come to him through God’s grace” and thus “the idea of a man’s duty to his possessions, to which he subordinates himself as an obedient steward, or even as an acquisitive machine, bears with chilling weight on his life”, leading man to pursue their acquisition relentlessly (Weber, p. 170). Asceticism makes itself known in the utter denial of partaking in any enjoyment or employment of what is acquired through one’s calling.

As a final note on the asceticism of Protestantism and its effects on the capitalist apologia, it is important to mention the correlation between the denial of the flesh and the workings of the factory. Th Puritans had a “strict exclusion of the erotic and of nudity from the realm of toleration”, mainly due to the potential for enjoyments of the flesh and leisure, both of which were viewed as abhorrent and quite heretical (Weber, p. 169). The Puritans took their feelings on the matter to the extreme of delegating certain standards of dress to their sect, and this “powerful uniformity of life [which is highlighted here by fashion, but took many forms in their society], which today so immensely aids the capitalistic interest in the standardization of production, had its ideal foundations in the repudiation of all idolatry of the flesh” (ibid.). After all, what else is one to do when all pleasurable activity is forbidden but work? This, it hardly needs to be said, fits well into the capitalist’s philosophy.

Asceticism is a miserable philosophy for life, and in its denial of all that is pleasurable and sensual it lays the groundwork for the capitalist’s justification of his cations. The beliefs in predestination and one’s calling are integral to the rationalization of the capitalist’s endeavors and essential to the worker’s acceptance of his lot in life. The “repudiation of the idolatry of the flesh” leaves a broken spirit, regarding every natural activity as evil and heretical. It is thus easy to place the worker in the standardized and mechanistic world of the factory. And when all is done, when all exploitation and criminal activity has come to the acquisition of more material wealth than one could spend in a century, the capitalist looks to his Protestant cult and finds justification for every activity in the teachings of his preferred sect.