On blaming capitalism on the Protestant Reformation

Rembrandt's Syndics (1662) were inspectors of woven cloth -- and most likely Protestants.

Why am I devoting so many hours to pondering Diarmaid MacCulloch's very l-o-o-ng The Reformation: A History? The impulses that inspire this effort lead off in several directions. One direction is a suspicion that the technologically mediated disruptions of longstanding social patterns which we are experiencing in the contemporary globalized internet era were perhaps equaled by the shattering of European society ushered in by the printing press, popular literacy, and a splintering Catholic Christendom -- all MacCulloch's subjects. Those medieval Europeans saw their universe blown apart by new science, rediscovered history, and novel approaches to the mystery of God; we too are seeing old verities -- stable societies and a stable climate -- disappear without much clue what new possibilities are being born.

MacCulloch is a rare type of historian, aspiring for broad brush tableaus as much as accurate detail from the past. And he can be fascinating on the subject of other writers who have attempted similar sweeping efforts -- especially when he disagrees.

I can't resist sharing his firm, but thorough, take-down of Max Weber's powerful notion that the Reformation gave Europe the conditions for our economic system.

Max Weber, a nineteenth century German sociologist of genius, constructed out of his understanding of Protestantism a theory that still remains influential, particularly among those who are not historians. ... Protestant England and Protestant Netherlands undoubtedly both became major economic powers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries --pioneers in economic production and virtuosos in commerce and the creation of capital and finance systems, while formerly entrepreneurial Catholic Italy stagnated. Why?

Any simple link between religion and capitalism founders on both objections and counterexamples. One could point out that rather than taking its roots from religion, this new wealth and power represents a shift from Mediterranean to North Sea that has political roots: particularly the disruption caused by the Italian wars from the 1490s, and the long-term rise of the Ottoman Empire ... Striking counterexamples would be the economic backwardness of Reformed Protestant Scotland or Transylvania. This suggests that the prosperity of England and the Netherlands arose precisely because they were not well-regulated Calvinist societies, but from the mid seventeenth century had reluctantly entrenched religious pluralism alongside a privileged Church ...

One powerful objection to the whole notion of a structural or causal link between Reformed Protestantism and capitalism comes from the very dubious further linkage that is often made between Protestantism generally and individualism. Individualism, the denial or betrayal of community, is, after all, seen as one of the basic components of the capitalist ethos. It is very frequently suggested that medieval Catholicism was somehow more communitarian and collective than the Protestantism that replaced it ... Yet the evidence I have drawn together here goes against such assertions. Calvinism is a Eucharist-centered and therefore community-minded faith. Its discipline at its most developed was designed to protect the Eucharist from devilish corruption [sinners receiving unworthily] and the resulting societies formed one of the most powerful and integrated expressions of community ever seen in Europe. ...

The "spirit of capitalism" debate shows how sensitive we should be in placing theology in its context before making our efforts to put together cause and effect. Equally we should never forget that theology is an independent variable, capable in the Reformation of generating huge transformations in society, modes of behavior, and the very shape of the year. ...

I haven't the scholarship to adjudicate between Weber and MacCulloch on Protestantism and capitalism, though I can say I've read both. In general, I lean more toward historians' world view; sociology often feels schematic and bloodless. Both reinforce awareness of the explosive magnitude of the changes that the Reformation introduced into European societies and beyond.

Previous posts in my The Reformation: A History series:
The Reformation: Islamophobia and a slavery past
The subversive weapon of the Reformation: musical propaganda
Bishop Laud and his cats