Role of religion in Weber’s account of

modernisation
This assignment is going to discuss the role of religion in the contemporary society according
to Weber and examine the views of two other classic theorists, like Karl Marx, and Emile
Durkheim. Finally it will address other main views from some other sociologists who took
different approaches to this area.

There are various definitions of religion, in writings of Weber (cited in Brubaker, 1989); he
defines religion as a change promoting social change. Weber was much more concerned on
world religion which he believes that it has attracted the majority of believers and certainly
affected the cause of global history. In contrast Marx defines religion as an economic justice
and material realities which cause problems in society. He also believes that religion stresses
the society which appears as a symptom rather than a disease which is used by oppressors to
treat those who are poor and exploited. Marx commented that “religion is opium of masses”
which shows that he was more economic than religious theory. Marx did not look much into
religion and he thought that everything was economics. Although, both Marx and Durkheim
believed that religion is a change promoting social change but Durkheim also have his own
views about it. He believes that religion is a social function with systems of rituals and
believes with indication to the scared which bring society close into social groups Durkheim
(1976, cited in Marshall, 1982). Despite, all these views Durkheim views religion as a nature
of institutionalisation which has nothing to do with social inequalities or power in the modern
society. In contrast to other two theorists, Durkheim from his survey in Australian Aboriginal
society, he believes that the practice of totemism Aboriginal practice was a norm which was
comparable to religion. He claims that norm is seen as an “object” or “symbol” which is
scared as it present various ritual activities. In addition, Durkheim in this survey, he sees
totemism as symbol or object which Aborigines used to exclude some other animals to be
hunted. Durkheim used all these as reference which are derived in respect of some social
values. Moreover, in view of all of these it absolutely mean that religion was taken as an
object in relationship to worship in modern societies.

Max Weber was a theorist who studied massive religious worldwide and it was on the centre
of his heart (Giddens 2009). In Weber’s book “The Protestant work Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism, (1904) he identifies that a number of protestant religion which developed in the
16th century, Europe has created the ideas which were necessary for the growth of capitalism.
He gave some examples that religion had promoted values such as condemnation of time-
wasting, hard work, self -discipline and laziness which affect people in the modern society.
According to Weber 1904, he argues that religion in some other cases shapes the entire
economic systems and conveys some fundamental changes to the society. In contrast, Marx
views religion as dominantly shaped by economic factors. Max Weber’s book “From History
To modernity” p 8 cited in Turner (1992) argues that religion is a conservative force which
can influence an individual’s behaviour and forces which are produced in a social context.
Max Weber argues that religion is a conservative force but it can perform a radical force
which leads to social change. For Max Weber to illustrate his point of view, he used the
inspiration of protestant ethic as a hypothesis. Max Weber defines the meaning of this term as
beliefs of religion which their main aspects are viewed as wasting time, food and resources,
which is also measured as sin (Giddens, 2006). He also believes that in order for a society to
live in a good life it has to fear God.
However, according to Weber all of those aspects were ideally the key catalysts in creation of
industrialisation, which mean that if this concept is true this also applies to religion that it
plays a major part in social change. Therefore, Marx claims that religion was an effective
agent of social control and as an opiate of the masses. He went on to explain that religion is
not a promoter of social change in the modern world but it only lead to the reduction of
individual’s hostility towards to unequal and exploitation of the society. In contrast Marx
argues that religion has a strong ideological influence due its values and religious beliefs
which present justifications of inequalities of power and wealth (Sharrock et. al, 2003).In
addition, Marx views religion as a traditional form with idealistic which has positive values
guiding to improve a lot of humanity of earth. Weber argues

According to Hughes et .al (1995) they argued about Weber’s believes in the idea of the
Calvinism that whether a person is born among the elect or not they all allowed to enter
heaven. Weber claims that the challenge of sanctions and discipline of the protestant ethic
encouraged men rationally to acquire wealth. Weber (1905, cited in Marsh et al, 1998)
believes that religious beliefs of the Calvinism have leaded the growth of capitalism in the
modern society. In his point of view, Weber claims that attitudes and beliefs overlap the
religious behaviour of the Calvinism and the notion of capitalism. Weber believes that this
relationship was only found in the Western Europe. Marx claims that Weber was to deny the
idea that Calvinism has caused capitalism as Weber was fully aware that there was a strong
interlinkage between beliefs and ideals of the Calvinism which their behaviours encourages
the raise of capitalism,(Cuff et al,1998). Furthermore, (Giddens, 2009) Weber in his writings
he claims protestant ethic as way of life which has been selected by the Calvinists with some
guidance of rules and directions which a human being should behave. Weber claims that
there are some duties and obligations which give roles to individual. Weber believes in the
principles of the Calvinists which promote individualism in defined careers, which he sees
himself a calling from God in life. From this point of view Weber defines a career as value
determined single-minded fashion which God has commanded for individual to work in glory
and succession in material things is a divine favour from God. In conclusive example of the
Calvinists, Weber wanted to prove that Calvinists succession has contributed in the Western
economic development as they have been promoted by the desire to serve god. From this idea
of the Calvinism, Weber thought that making money was a tangible evidence from a
succession calling from God.

From the idea of Calvinism, Marx argues about Weber’s idea of religion ideologies which
dominant the society. He claims that such ideologies have some implications that save to
justify the interest of the ruling groups at the expenses of others. For Weber, the dominant of
religious values break a strong commitment in the economic development (Sharrock at el,
2003). To emphasis this point of view, Weber gave an example of countries like China, the
most powerful developed cultural country which is dominate in religious values. In (Cuff at
el, 1998) Weber claims that religion is a dominant significant which influence the
development of urbanism, commerce and manufactures in the China and India in the 19th
century which give a raise in capitalism rather the radical patterns of social change. Weber
views religion as denomination which influences such an inhibiting change in these
industrialised countries which lead to the development of capitalism. In contrast Feuerbach
(1957) in his book called “The Essence of Christianity”, he claims that religion involves ideas
of values which are primarily produced by human beings in the event of their cultural
development in setting the structure and order of the society. He went on argue that values
and norms of human beings are socially constructed and not created through the activities of
God.
However,

Max Weber
Like Marx, Weber subscribed to the idea that religion could be ideological in two ways;

It gave assurance to the most fortunate, .i.e. the powerful and wealthy, by stressing that their
position was natural or god-given

It offered religious reasons for poverty and suffering in term s of themes such as wickedness,
sins committed in former lives. Weber argued, like Marx, that both these themes legitimate
status quo.

However Weber believed that some religious ideas specifically protestant beliefs, had
initiated the economic and social conditions in which capitalism emerged.

From his comparative studies, Weber noted that while similar economic conditions prevailed
in china, India and Europe, capitalism only developed in the latter. He noted that capitalism
had developed in those parts of Europe where a particular set of protestant beliefs known as
Calvinism were dominant. He concluded that Calvinism had brought about the right cultural
climate for capitalist ideas practices to develop in two ways.

Weber noted that;

Calvinists believed in predestination =, i.e. that they were chosen by god for salvation. They
were taught to believe that righteous living was all important and that their reward for
sticking to such religious principles would be economic success.

Consequently Calvinism encouraged values such as self-discipline, hard work, thrift, modesty
and the rejection of self-indulgence, pleasure, idleness and lavish spending; the protestant
work ethic. The adoption of these ideas, Weber argues, led to the rapid accumulation of
capital which was invested in industrialisation and the emergence of a Calvinist capitalist
class at the end of feudal era.

Weber did not say Calvinism caused capitalism; he only suggested that it was the major
contribute to a climate of change. Many other pre-conditions needed to be in place. For
example, Calvinist beliefs had to be supplemented by a certain level of technology, a skilled
and mobile workforce and rational modes of law and bureaucracy. These latter pre-conditions
were also present in china and India but Weber claimed that eastern religions emphasised the
spiritual rather than the rational or material – in other words, ideas which were not conductive
to sustained economic activity.

Criticms of Weber

o Sombart suggests that Weber was mistaken about the beliefs held by Calvinists.
Calvinism was against greed and the pursuit of money for its own sake.

o Some countries with large Calvinist populations did not industrialise and this is cited as
evidence that Weber’s thesis is wrong. However marshal points out that Weber did not claim
Calvinism was the sole pre-condition for the emergence of capitalism. For example, Scotland
lacked a skilled technical labour force and capital investment.

o Some commentators have suggested that slavery, colonialism and piracy were more
influential than Calvinist beliefs in accumulating the capital required for industrialisation.

o Marxists have also been critical of Weber. Kautsky suggested that capitalism pre-dated
Calvinism. Bourgeoisie capitalists were attracted to it because it offered convenient
justification for the pursuit of economic interests. Thus the protestant religion was an
ideology used to legitimate capitalist interests.

Despite some empirical difficulties in testing Weber’s thesis, his ideas remain important
because he highlighted the relationship between social structure (i.e. the economic and social
system) and social action (i.e. interaction and interpretation). His point was that if certain
structural factors are present, people may choose to act upon religious ideas and bring about
change.