The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

In this chapter, Max Weber explores the Protestant notion of the “calling,” which he sees as being central to the spirit of capitalism that Protestantism helped to spread. In Weber’s view, the notion of having a “calling” has within it “an audible echo from the religious realm” that imbues it with a sense of morality and religious meaning (39). Prior to the Reformation, work was seen as something that one simply did to survive, with no special significance or meaning. However, after the Reformation, work was transformed into the concept of having a calling, in which “one’s task is given by God” (39). Such a transformation of the meaning of work turns one’s job into one’s ethical and religious duty.

Weber argues that this newfound notion of having a calling was first developed by Luther, the theologian whose teachings spurred the Protestant Reformation. Besides a handful of other instances, Luther was the first to use the phrase of a calling in its modern-day usage. Likewise, while there were some “early signs of an appreciation of daily work” in the Middle Ages, it was only after Luther that “the fulfillment of duty in vocational callings became viewed as the highest expression that moral activity could assume” (39).