The Protestant work ethic, the
Calvinist

Calvinist work ethic[1] or the Puritan
work ethic[a][2] is a concept in theology, sociology, economics and
history which emphasizes that hard work, discipline and frugality[3]
are a result of a person's subscription to the values espoused by the
Protestant faith, particularly Calvinism.
This contrasts with the focus upon religious attendance, confession,
and ceremonial sacrament in the Roman Catholic tradition. A person
does not need to be a religious
Calvinist

Calvinist in order to follow the
Protestant work ethic, as it is a part of certain cultures impacted by
the Protestant Reformation.[b]
The concept is often credited with helping to define the societies of
Northern, Central and
Western Europe

Western Europe such as in Scandinavia, the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland. Even though
some of these countries were more affected by
Lutheranism

Lutheranism or
Anglicanism

Anglicanism than Calvinism, local Protestants nevertheless were
influenced by these ideas to a varying degree. As penal law was
enacted to uphold the uniform teachings of the
Church of England

Church of England in
England, only various English dissenters[c] held to those values.
Among them were the
Puritans

Puritans who emigrated to New England, bringing
the work ethic with them and helping define the culture of what would
become the
United States

United States of America. Germanic immigrants brought their
work ethic to the
United States

United States of America, Canada,
South Africa

South Africa and
other European colonies.
The phrase was initially coined in 1904–1905[d] by
Max Weber

Max Weber in his
book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.[4]
A number of leading contemporary historians, including eminent
historian
Fernand Braudel (d. 1985) and British historian Hugh
Trevor-Roper (d. 2003), assert that the existing consensus among
scholars is that Protestant Work Ethic theory is false. They refer to
the pre-Reformation existence of rapid economic development of
Catholic capitalist communities.
Contents
1 Basis in Protestant theology
2 American political history
3 Support
4 Criticism
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links
Basis in Protestant theology[edit]
Further information:
Grace (Christianity)

Grace (Christianity) and Good works
Protestants, beginning with Martin Luther, reconceptualized worldly
work as a duty which benefits both the individual and society as a
whole. Thus, the Catholic idea of good works was transformed into an
obligation to consistently work diligently as a sign of grace. Whereas
Catholicism teaches that good works are required of Catholics as a
necessary manifestation of the faith they received, and that faith
apart from works is dead (James 2:14–26) and barren, the Calvinist
theologians taught that only those who were predestined (cf. the
Calvinist

Calvinist concept of double predestination) to be saved would be
saved.
Since it was impossible to know who was predestined, the notion
developed that it might be possible to discern that a person was elect
(predestined) by observing their way of life. Hard work and frugality
were thought to be two important consequences of being one of the
elect. Protestants were thus attracted to these qualities and supposed
to strive for reaching them.
American political history[edit]
Writer
Frank Chodorov argued that the Protestant ethic was long
considered indispensable for American political figures:
There was a time, in these United States, when a candidate for public
office could qualify with the electorate only by fixing his birthplace
in or near the "log cabin." He may have acquired a competence, or even
a fortune, since then, but it was in the tradition that he must have
been born of poor parents and made his way up the ladder by sheer
ability, self-reliance, and perseverance in the face of hardship. In
short, he had to be "self made." The so-called Protestant Ethic then
prevalent held that man was a sturdy and responsible individual,
responsible to himself, his society, and his God. Anybody who could
not measure up to that standard could not qualify for public office or
even popular respect. One who was born "with a silver spoon in his
mouth" might be envied, but he could not aspire to public acclaim; he
had to live out his life in the seclusion of his own class.[5]
Support[edit]
There has been a revitalization of Weber's interest, including the
work of Lawrence Harrison, Samuel P. Huntington, and David Landes. In
a
New York Times

New York Times article, published in June 8, 2003, Niall Ferguson
pointed that data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) seems to confirm that "the experience of Western
Europe in the past quarter-century offers an unexpected confirmation
of the Protestant ethic. To put it bluntly, we are witnessing the
decline and fall of the
Protestant work ethic

Protestant work ethic in Europe. This
represents the stunning triumph of secularization in Western
Europe—the simultaneous decline of both
Protestantism

Protestantism and its unique
work ethic."[6]
It is common for those in a Protestant work culture to skip lunch
(traditionally being sustained from a large breakfast) or to eat lunch
while doing their job.[7][8] This is in contrast to Catholic cultures
which practice siesta at lunch time,[9] and neo-Confucianist cultures
such as China, Korea, and Japan which have a one- or two-hour lunch
break.[10] Some countries such as Spain have experimented with banning
siesta in order to try to adopt the Protestant work ethic, with hopes
of reducing their financial debt via hard-working and efficient
employees.[9] In Italy, many shops now remain open during siesta,
while in China, companies are encouraging employees to give up their
traditional break time.[11]
Criticism[edit]
See also: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
§ Criticisms
The economist
Joseph Schumpeter

Joseph Schumpeter argues that capitalism began in Italy
in the 14th century, not in the Protestant areas of Europe.[12] Other
factors that further developed the European market economy included
the strengthening of property rights and lowering of transaction costs
with the decline and monetization of feudalism, and the increase in
real wages following the epidemics of bubonic plague.[13]
Becker and Wossmann at the University of Munich have written a
discussion paper describing an alternate theory. The abstract to this
states that the literacy gap between Protestants (as a result of the
Reformation) and Catholics sufficiently explains the economic gaps,
and that the "[r]esults hold when we exploit the initial concentric
dispersion of the Reformation to use distance to Wittenberg as an
instrument for Protestantism."[14] However, they also note that,
between Luther (1500) and 1871 Prussia, the limited data available has
meant that the period in question is regarded as a "black box" and
that only "some cursory discussion and analysis" is possible.[15]
An eminent historian
Fernand Braudel (d. 1985) wrote "all historians
have opposed this tenuous theory [the Protestant Ethic], although they
have not managed to be rid of it once and for all. Yet it is clearly
false. The northern countries took over the place that earlier had
been so long and brilliantly been occupied by the old capitalist
centers of the Mediterranean. They invented nothing, either in
technology or business management."[16] Social scientist Rodney Stark
moreover comments that "during their critical period of economic
development, these northern centers of capitalism were Catholic, not
Protestant — the Reformation still lay well into the future." He
also summarized the finding of other leading modern historians thus,
"Protestants were not more likely to hold the high-status capitalist
positions than were Catholics. Catholic areas of western Europe did
not lag in their industrial development. And even more obvious at the
time Weber wrote was that fully developed capitalism had appeared in
Europe many centuries before the Reformation!"[17] British historian
Hugh Trevor-Roper (d. 2003) said, "The idea that large-scale
industrial capitalism was ideologically impossible before the
Reformation is exploded by the simple fact that it existed."[18]
See also[edit]
Achievement ideology
Anglo-Saxon economy
Critical responses to Weber
Industrial Revolution
Laziness
Merton thesis
Prosperity theology
Prussian virtues
Sloth (deadly sin)
Underclass
Notes[edit]
^ Especially in the United States.
^ Other Protestant traditions, most notably Lutheranism, also tend to
subscribe to this set of values.
^ Further information: Puritanism, Independent (religion),
Nonconformism, English Presbyterianism, Ecclesiastical separatism,
17th-century denominations in England.
^ No exact date is known. The term appeared to the public with the
publication of his book in 1905.
References[edit]
^ The Idea of Work in Europe from Antiquity to Modern Times by
Catharina Lis
^ Ryken, Leland (2010). Worldly Saints: The
Puritans

Puritans As They Really
Were. Harper Collins. pp. 51–.
ISBN 978-0-310-87428-7. ]
^ "Protestant Ethic". Believe: Religious Information Source.
^ Weber, Max (2003) [First published 1905]. The Protestant Ethic and
the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Parsons, Talcott. New York:
Dover. ISBN 9780486122373.
^ Chodorov, Frank (21 March 2011). "The Radical Rich". Mises Daily
Articles. Mises Institute.
^ Ferguson, Niall (8 June 2003). "The World; Why America Outpaces
Europe (Clue: The God Factor)". The New York Times. Retrieved
2011-09-19.
^ Bresiger, Gregory (2 February 2014). "Millions of Americans skipping
lunch to work: study". New York Post.
^ "Cubicle Curtis". "How to Take Productive Breaks". Work
Awesome.
^ a b Mills, George (4 July 2013). "'Working hours in Spain are too
long'". The Local.
^ "Business Hours in China". Travel China Guide.
^ Hodgekinson, Tom (26 July 2008). "The Idle Parent". Daily
Telegraph.
^ Schumpeter, Joseph A., "Part II From the Beginning to the First
Classical Situation (to about 1790), chapter 2 The scholastic Doctors
and the Philosophers of Natural Law",
History

History of Economic Analysis,
pp. 74–75, ISBN 0-415-10888-8, OCLC 269819 . In
the footnote, Schumpeter refers to Usher, Abbott Payson (1943). The
Early
History

History of Deposit Banking in Mediterranean Europe. and de
Roover, Raymond (December 1942). "Money, Banking, and Credit in
Medieval Bruges". Journal of Economic History. The Economic History
Association. 2, supplement S1: 52–65.
doi:10.1017/S0022050700083431.
^ Voigtlander, Nico; Voth, Hans-Joachim (9 October 2012). "The Three
Horsemen of Riches: Plague, War, and Urbanization in Early Modern
Europe" (PDF). The Review of Economic Studies. 80 (2): 774–811.
doi:10.1093/restud/rds034.
^ Becker, Sascha O.; Wößmann, Ludger (2007), Was Weber Wrong? A
Human Capital Theory of Protestant Economic
History

History - Munich
Discussion Paper No. 2007-7 (PDF), Munich: Department of Economics
University of Munich, retrieved 12 September 2012
^ Becker, Wossmann (2007) page A5 Appendix B
^ Braudel, Fernand. 1977. Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and
Capitalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
^
http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/protestant-objections/protestant-modernity.html
^ Trevor-Roper. 2001. The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century. Liberty
Fund
Further reading[edit]
Sascha O. Becker and Ludger Wossmann. "Was Weber Wrong? A Human
Capital Theory of Protestant
Economics
.svg/540px-Countries_by_Real_GDP_Growth_Rate_(2016).svg.png)
Economics History". Munich Discussion
Paper No. 2007-7, 22 January 2007.
http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/1366/1/weberLMU.pdf
Frey, Donald (August 14, 2001), "Protestant Ethic Thesis", in Robert
Whaples, EH.Net Encyclopedia, archived from the original on
2014-03-28
Robert Green, editor. The Weber Thesis Controversy. D.C. Heath, 1973,
covers some of the criticism of Weber's theory.
Hill, Roger B. (1992), Historical Context of the Work Ethic, archived
from the original on 2012-08-17
McKinnon, Andrew (2010). "Elective affinities of the Protestant ethic:
Weber and the chemistry of capitalism" (PDF). Sociological Theory. 28
(1): 108–126. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9558.2009.01367.x.
Max Weber. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Chas.
Scribner's sons, 1959.
External links[edit]
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