Max Weber is Alive and Well and Living in Guatemala the Protestant Ethic Today

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The Review of Faith & International Affairs

ISSN: 1557-0274 (Print) 1931-7743 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfia20

MAX WEBER IS ALIVE AND WELL, AND LIVING INGUATEMALA: THE PROTESTANT ETHIC TODAY

Peter L. Berger

To cite this article: Peter L. Berger (2010) MAX WEBER IS ALIVE AND WELL, AND LIVING IN

GUATEMALA: THE PROTESTANT ETHIC TODAY, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 8:4,3-9, DOI: 10.1080/15570274.2010.528964

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MAX WEBER IS ALIVE ANDWELL, AND LIVING INGUATEMALA: THE

PROTESTANT ETHIC TODAY

By Peter L. Berger

Taylor and FrancisRFIA_A_528964.sgm10.1080/15570274.2010.528964The Review of Faith and International Affairs1557-0274 (print)/1931-7743 (online)Original Article2010Taylor & Francis840000002010Professor Emeritus PeterBerger [email protected]

ax Weber’s essay, The ProtestantEthic and the Spirit ofCapitalism

, must surely be themost discussed piece of writing

in the history of social science.

1

It has been theship that launched a thousand dissertations,and it has created a cottage industry of exegesis.Needless to say, this is quite a tribute to Weber’s intellectual stature. It indicates thecontinued relevance of Weber’s analysisregarding the correlation of the Protestant ethicand economic development. A century after Weber’s essay, Protestantism has changeddramatically. To what extent is this correlationstill evident around the globe today?

It seems to me that there are four equallyvalid approaches to discussing the impact of The

Protestant Ethic

.

●

The obvious first approach is to explorethe validity of Weber’s historicalargument: Did Protestantism really playthe role he assigned to it in the genesis ofmodern capitalism? This question hasoccupied several cohorts of historians,from R.H. Tawney on.

●

Second, the essay can be placed within theoverall context of Weber’s opus, especiallyif one sees this opus, at least in part, as adebate with the ghost of Karl Marx. One

can ask, “Just what is the role of ideas inprocesses of social change?” (In Marxistterms, if you will, this is the questionabout the relation of “superstructure” and“sub-structure,” which preoccupiedGyorgy Lukacs and Antonio Gramsci,among others.)

●

Third, Weber’s treatment of theProtestant ethic can be seen as a keyelement of a sociologically inspiredphilosophy of history, especially in termsof the unintended and unanticipatedconsequences of action.

●

And finally, one can, with all due respect,leave all the preceding issues aside andinstead make a more practical andempirical investigation of how Weber’s

notion of the Protestant ethic helps usunderstand developments in the worldtoday.

In what follows here, I offer an overview andanalysis vis-à-vis this latter line of inquiry. I willframe these reflections with a series of questions.

Peter L. Berger

is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology at Boston University, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs. He is a Contributing Editor on The Review of Faith

M

Peter L. Berger

is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology at

Boston University, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute on Culture,

Religion and World Affairs. He is a Contributing Editor on The Review of

Faith & International Affairs

and a member of the Board of Advisors of the

Institute for Global Engagement.


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First, what are the key traits of the ProtestantEthic?

The answer to this question turns on Weber’s concept of “this-worldly asceticism.”This concept delineates a distinct pattern ofhuman behavior:

●

a disciplined attitude to work (not justhard

work, which one finds in many veryun-Protestant places, but what Weberunderstood as the rationalization

of work);

●

an equally disciplined attitude to otherspheres of social life, notably the family(Weber’s notion of life-discipline);

●

a deferral of instant consumption,resulting in saving and, eventually, capital

accumulation and social mobility (whatpsychologists call “delayed gratification”);

●

and all of this in the context of a worldview relatively free of magic(Weber’s “disenchantment of the world”).

To this list of traits one should add two that Weber did not enlarge upon:

●

a strong interest in the education ofchildren (originally based on the

Protestant insistence that the Bible shouldbe read by everyone);

●

and the propensity to create voluntaryassociations of non-elite people.

This last trait, of course, has not been char-acteristic of classical Protestantism, but gainedenormous importance from what David Martinhas called the “bourgeois Protestant axis”(Amsterdam–London–Boston)—the principle of

voluntarism bred by Dutch sectarianism, EnglishNonconformity, and, most explosively, Ameri-can denominationalism (the vast progeny ofNew England Congregationalism).

2

Where is such a constellation of traits to be found today?

3

The obvious first place to explorethe contemporary presence of the Protestantethic is in Protestantism itself. However, wecan’t assume that all forms of Protestantismpropagate the ethic to the same degree. As Weberhimself pointed out, this ethic declines after ithas had its effect in the early stages of moderneconomic development. Thus it is present only

in a very attenuated form in, say, mainlineProtestant denominations in contemporary

America.One must look rather at what is arguably the

most dynamic religious movement in the world

today—the wildfire expansion of PentecostalProtestantism in Latin America, sub-Saharan

Africa, parts of east and southeast Asia, and inpockets of marginalized people in the mostunlikely places (as among European Gypsies andlow castes in Nepal). The phenomenon is vast:there are some 250 million Pentecostals in the

world today, and possibly many more; 50million is the estimate for Latin America.

4

How does the behavioral profile of these people

compare with the 17

th

and 18

th

century Protestantsdiscussed by Weber? And how does it relate toeconomic development?

In my view, the attitudesand behavior of the new Pentecostals bear astriking resemblance to their Anglo-Saxonpredecessors. This can be observed most readilyin Latin America. (Hence the title of this paper.Guatemala has the highest concentration ofProtestants in Latin America, and most of themare Pentecostal: about a quarter of thepopulation countrywide, and about a third of the

population in the capital area.) What takes placehere is nothing less than a cultural revolution,sharply deviant from traditional Latin Americanpatterns. This new culture is certainly “ascetic.”It promotes personal discipline and honesty,proscribes alcohol and extra-marital sex,dismantles the compadre

system (which is basedon Catholic practice and, with its fiestas

andother extravagant expenditures, discouragessaving), and teaches ordinary people to create

and run their own grassroots institutions.Pentecostalism, moreover, fosters a culture

that is radically opposed to classical machismo

.Indeed, in many ways it is a women’s movement:

while most preachers are men, women areimportant missionaries and organizers. Evenmore important, women take on leadership roles

within the family, “domesticating” theirhusbands (or, alternatively, kicking them out ifthey refuse to adhere to Protestant moralstandards) and paying attention to the educationof their children. Gender is a factor that wasoutside Weber’s horizon, but it is critical to any


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analysis of the social and economic effects ofPentecostalism. It is also important by way ofcomparison with the effects of that otherexplosive religious movement of thecontemporary era: resurgent Islam.

It should not be surprising that thesepatterns produce what I like to call a“comparative cultural advantage” in terms ofsocial mobility and economic development.

Where the macro-economy is in very bad shape(for example, in the northeast of Brazil), thisadvantage is more or less dormant. But wherepeople with these characteristics have a realchance—as, for example, in Chile or in southernBrazil (Sao Paulo has been called the world

capital of Pentecostalism)—one can observe apositive correlation with social mobility and withit a truly novel phenomenon in Latin America: agrowing Protestant middle class, economicallyproductive and increasingly assertive politically.Of course, Latin American Pentecostalism is nota monolithic phenomenon. There are strands

which deviate from the Weberian concept (forexample, groups that promote a so-called“wealth gospel” wherein God provides benefitsto people who have to make little effort beyond

having faith). But the overall picture fits neatly with Weber’s description of the Protestant ethicand its effects.

Pentecostalism’s power to advance theProtestant ethic is evident outside Latin America,too. In recent years the Institute on Culture,Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University(my home institution) and the Centre forDevelopment and Enterprise (Johannesburg,South Africa) have collaborated on research on

Pentecostalism in sub-Saharan Africa.

5

Thefindings thus far strongly suggest thatPentecostalism is having similar socio-economiceffects in Africa as in Latin America—thisdespite the fact that African Pentecostalism/neo-Pentecostalism sometimes takes very differentforms than the Latin American varieties.Pentecostalism in Africa frequently intersects

with an important phenomenon that has no realanalogue in Latin America—the so-called

African Independent Churches, which combinea charismatic Christianity with elements oftraditional African religion.

More broadly, are there analogues to theProtestant ethic among non-Protestant groups?

Some sociologists (myself included) haveexamined the question of whether there are“functional equivalents” of the Protestant ethic.

An interesting case in this connection is that ofeastern Asia. Some have wondered whetherspecific cultural elements have been a factor inthe region’s rapid ascendancy, and some haveargued that the Confucian heritage may besuch a factor. Confucianism has beenimportant in all the countries of the region—first in Japan, the earliest and most dramaticcase of a non-Western society successfullymodernizing; and then in what used to be

called “the Four Little Tigers” of South Korea,Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore; and thenin the economies of southeast Asia, in whichethnic Chinese minorities played a leadingeconomic role. The so-called “post-Confucianhypothesis” proposed that the Confucianheritage fosters values and behavior similar inimportant ways to the Protestant ethic—disciplined lifestyles, frugality, soberness, aconsuming interest in education, and, last butnot least, a disdain for magic (that is, an Asian

version of “disenchantment”). Weber, of course, had also discussed

Confucianism at great length. He saw it as a caseof this-worldly non-

asceticism and thus notconducive to modern economic development.

Weber studied the worldview and theinstitutions of the literary bureaucracy ofimperial China, where his interpretation was inall likelihood valid. However, leaving aside Japan(where Confucian ideas combined with a martial

ethic of very different antecedents), the ethnicChinese “carriers” of the “economic miracle”

were mostly people who had never read theConfucian classics and whose lifestyle was vastlydifferent from that of the imperial Mandarins.Robert Bellah coined the term “bourgeoisConfucianism” to describe this value system.

6

Others have suggested that the operative valueshere were not so much Confucian but ratherrooted in Chinese folk religion—a highlypragmatic (if you will, “rational”) worldview andpractice which indeed provided the culturalmatrix of “high” Confucianism.


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Although the exact origins may be uncertain,it is quite clear that analogues to the Protestantethic can indeed be found in eastern Asia andthese may be looked upon as “functionalequivalents.” As the luster of the east-Asian

economies has diminished somewhat in recentyears, there has been less talk about the post-Confucian hypothesis (apparently Confucianismis not a sufficient antidote to potentialbankruptcy). This does not change the fact thatcultural factors must be taken into account whenstudying the amazing achievement of thesesocieties, which moved large numbers of peoplefrom abject poverty to a reasonably comfortablelevel of living. Gordon

Redding demonstrated this inhis study of Overseas Chineseentrepreneurs and he hasmore recently enlarged thescope of his research to othergroups in the region, notablyin Japan and South Korea. Hehas also been exploring thecultural factors in the remarkable developmentof mainland China since the onset of itseconomic reforms.

7

The recent economic

upsurge of mainland China demonstrates thatthe same cultural values, which animated thesuccess stories of the Overseas Chinese and

which were long suppressed in the mainland, cansuddenly produce dramatic effects if theenvironment changes.

Sinologists have disagreed for a long time on whether Confucianism is to be understood as areligion or as an essentially secular system ofethics (non-Sinologist though I am, I favor the

former view). In any case, the quest for analoguesto the Protestant ethic will bring up both cases ofother religious traditions and cases of clearlysecular values.

If there is one religious traditionconventionally viewed as inimical to moderncapitalism, it would be that of IberianCatholicism. Yet out of its most conservativecircles has come a movement, Opus Dei, whichhas played a crucial role in the move toward amarket economy in Spain, and which may play asimilar role in some other predominantlyCatholic countries (such as the Philippines).

Opus Dei originated in Spain in the 1920s and1930s, allied to the most conservative wing ofSpanish Catholicism. It was organized as astrictly hierarchical order, containing bothpriests and lay people, and had as its particular

focus the penetration of political and economicelites. It propagated a rigorously ascetic, quasi-monastic lifestyle, and adherence to strictdoctrinal orthodoxy. Yet at the same time itsmission was conceived as taking place in the

world, not confined to monasteries or otherecclesiastical institutions. In other words, itrather closely resembled Weber’s concept of this-

worldly asceticism and his famous description ofProtestantism as having

abolished the monasteries andturned the world into amonastery.

8

From the beginning it wasclosely associated with theFranco regime. In the finalyears of this regime it attainedgreat political prominence.

Somewhere along the line its leadership decidedthat Spain should embark on a capitalist course.Opus Dei not only founded two prestigious

business schools, but it used its influence withinthe government to induce market-friendlyeconomic policies. Its religious mission in Spainhas hardly been successful; in the wake of theFranco regime, Spain underwent a dramaticprocess of secularization, greatly weakening thestatus and influence of the Catholic Church. Butthe economic success of Opus Dei has beenbrilliant in that it set out to make Spain into asuburb of Fatima, but succeeded in making

Spain into a suburb of Brussels.

9

Beyond Catholicism, Islam also presentsinteresting questions regarding analogues to theProtestant ethic. Indeed, one of the most timelyquestions concerning the relation of culture andeconomic development is that of thecompatibility of Islam with the latter and withdemocracy. A widely held view maintains thatthere is an inherent incompatibility. Even if that

were so (which I tend to doubt), there is onesignificant 20

th

century example of the contrary:Indonesia, the largest predominantly Muslimnation in the world.

10

CULTURAL

FACTORS

MUST

BE

TAKEN

INTO

ACCOUNT

WHEN

STUDYING

THE

AMAZING

ACHIEVEMENT

OF

THESE

SOCIETIES


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To be sure, different religious traditions havedifferent degrees of affinity with moderncapitalism and modern democracy. And I wouldargue that the type of Protestantism representedby contemporary Pentecostalism has an

exceptionally high affinity. This does not mean,however, that other traditions are under someancient curse which prevents them fromadapting to new circumstances. At times theseadaptations are dramatic and surprising. OpusDei is one such case. Another is that of OldBelievers in Russia. This group is about as“reactionary” as can be in their religiouscharacter, yet it has produced a surprisingnumber of successful capitalist

entrepreneurs since the19

th

century. Analogues to the

Protestant ethic can also befound in other carriers ofmodern capitalist culture. Afertile area of research is thatof the military in developingsocieties. In many of thesesocieties the military is one important institutionthat fosters “this-worldly asceticism” in its

members. Of course, the military can also be thelocale of corruption and ruthless powermanipulations. But where an honorable militaryethos prevails, it is plausible to hypothesize thatit may carry over into economic and political life.

All in all, I would propose that somethinglike the Protestant ethic is a necessary though notsufficient causal factor if a population is to movesuccessfully from poverty to a reasonably decentstandard of living. This is true both for entire

societies and for groups within a society thathave been left behind, such as marginalizedgroups in America or Europe. The prescriptionfor attitudes and behavior conducive toeconomic development in, say, Bangladesh is notessentially different from that in an inner-cityslum in the United States. The “carriers,” ofcourse, will be very different in these differentlocations.

Here it is important to address two furtherquestions—one about “vanguards” and oneabout “expiration dates.” First, how do“vanguards” impact an entire society?

It is not

necessary for an entire population to evince thetraits of this-worldly asceticism for developmentto take place. It often suffices if a highly activeminority possesses these traits and serves as thevehicle for development. As development takes

place, other groups, even if they do not share thesame traits, will benefit. As they do so, their ownculture will inevitably change. The metaphor todescribe this is not the much-maligned “trickle-down effect.” Rather, it is the metaphor of therising tide which lifts all ships. This lifting can bespeedy and dramatic, as has been nicely shownby the economic success stories of eastern Asia.

Both historically and today, these“vanguard” minorities can be

religious or non-religious.Examples of religiouslydefined vanguards can befound not only amongProtestants (such as theHuguenot refugees who wereinvited into Prussia and werevery instrumental in itsascendancy), but also Jews in

Poland (also invited), Armenians in the MiddleEast, and Jains in India. The vanguards can also

be ethnic, with Overseas Chinese being a primeexample. And they can be Indian castes or sub-castes, such as the Marwaris, who originated inGujarat and became successful entrepreneursthroughout India.

Naturally, all of this can create significantpolitical problems. The visible economic successof minorities, while the majority is still leftbehind, is likely to create severe and potentiallyviolent resentments. Inevitably, the benefits of

economic development will not be equallydistributed, and inequality is likely to increasesharply in the earlier stages of economic growth.It requires very skillful political leadership tocontrol this looming turbulence, especially underdemocratic regimes where the rhetoric and thepolicies of populist redistribution are verytempting.

As for “expiration dates” of the ethic: Doesthe Protestant ethic “wear out” after markedeconomic development?

A very intriguing questionis whether the Protestant ethic, so important inthe earlier stages of capitalism, continues to be

ANALOGUES

TO

THE

PROTESTANT

ETHIC

CAN

ALSO

BE

FOUND

IN

OTHER

CARRIERS

OF

MODERN

CAPITALIST

CULTURE


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important in later stages. Where capitalism issuccessful, the productivity of the economyincreases enormously. Put simply, much lesshard work and discipline are necessary to keepthe economy going. Some individuals (again, a

sort of “vanguard”) continue to work very hard(though even they tend to be less ascetic in theirlives outside the workplace), often for very largerewards. Most of the population, though, canafford to be much more relaxed. Notsurprisingly, then, the general culture becomesmuch more hedonistic, permissive, even lazy. AFrench bestseller nicely expresses this attitude:Bonjour, paresse

or “Hello, laziness” (an allusionto Francoise Sagan’s famous novel, Bonjour,

tristesse)

. What this suggests is that anyconstellation of attitudes and behavior should, interms of its economic functionality, haveattached to it an “expiration date,” marking itvalid until a certain level of gross domesticproduct (GDP) has been reached.

Still, attitudes and behavior seen aseconomically dysfunctional at one time mayparadoxically become functional at a later time.

A comparison of Japan and India is instructivein this regard. It has been plausibly argued that

the modernization of Japan was animated by asort of de-militarization of the samurai

ethos,and indeed many of the early capitalistentrepreneurs were members of the samuraiclass forced to find new occupations after theMeiji regime dismantled the institutions offeudalism. Here was a “this-worldly asceticism”

with a vengeance—iron discipline, rigorousdevotion to the tasks at hand, frugal living, andtotal loyalty to one’s superiors, with the loyalty

transferred from one’s feudal overlord to one’scompany.

As Japan first industrialized in the Meijiera, and as it recovered from the devastation of

World War II, this was a highly functionalethic. It is much more doubtful whether it isstill so today, when Japan has entered a post-industrial phase, with a largely knowledge-driven economy. Again not surprisingly, theculture has become more hedonistic,individualistic, and less respectful of allhierarchies. This change has been deplored bytraditionalists, but arguably the change is not

only tolerable but may actually be necessary inthe new economy.

Consider also the much less driven, evendreamy culture of traditional India, which hasbeen interpreted as a dysfunctional factor for the

development of the Indian economy. Yet it isprecisely these features that may be conducive tosuccess in a knowledge-driven economy. Theamazingly successful Indian computer industrycan illustrate this point. Put differently,asceticism may be a sin (or a virtue) of youth.

If this argument is valid, it implies apoignant human drama: the children reject thevalues and the lifestyles of their parents, despite(or perhaps because of) the fact that the easier life

of the children was made possible by thesacrifices of the parental generation. And this

would be but a modern reiteration of an age-oldphenomenon. As “hard” societies become “soft,”there occurs an inter-generational cultural shift.Traditionalists will interpret the softness asdeplorable decadence. And where the earlierhardness was of a martial character, the softnessmay make the society more vulnerable toaggression from peoples of hardier temperament.

Generations of historians have so understood

the decline of Rome, and perhaps this applieseven today as the societies of the West confrontviolent aggression by groups that are very hardyindeed. But the same logic may not apply toeconomic behavior. If left alone by outsiders, thelazy may indeed inherit the earth—or rather,that patch of earth which has been madeprosperous by the ascetic efforts of earliergenerations.

Conclusion

When discussing the correlation of theProtestant ethic and economic development,

Weber used a German term—

wahlverwandschaft

—usually translated intoEnglish as “affinity.” There is an affinitybetween Protestantism and early capitalism.There is an affinity between Pentecostalismtoday and modern economic development. Butit is not necessarily a simple cause–effectrelationship. There is an interactive dynamic

between numerous causal factors in economicdevelopment, and the dynamic can change


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over time. One thing, however, is very clear:you cannot ignore the religious factor as youlook at economic development. Indeed,religion plays an important role in social

change around the world. Whether one likesthis or not is a philosophical question about

which social scientists (as social scientists) havelittle to say. ❖

1.

This article is based on a conference paper presented at “The Norms, Beliefs, and Institutions of 21

st Century Capitalism: Celebrating Max Weber’sThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism ,” held October 8–9, 2005 at the Center for the Study of Economy & Society (www.economyandsociety.org) at Cornell University.

2. See Martin, “Integration und Fragmentierung.”

3. Since its inception in 1985, the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University has pursued questions related to religion anddevelopment in a series of projects in different parts of the world, beginning with two pioneering studies. The first, by David Martin, explored thecolossal explosion of Pentecostalism in Latin America. This was first described in his book, Tongues of Fire , and since then he and others have studiedthe phenomenon in other parts of the world. In the second study, Gordon Redding examined the values and lifestyles of Overseas Chineseentrepreneurs, reported on in his book The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism .

4. See Martin, Tongues of Fire .

5. See the report, “Faith on the Move: Pentecostalism and its Potential Contribution to Development,” Centre for Development and Enterprise, August2008. This report and related resources are available online at http://www.cde.org.za/article.php?a_id=320.

6. See Bellah, “Cultural Identity and Asian Modernization.”

7. See generally Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism .8. See Weber, General Economic History .

9. My institute’s study of Opus Dei was summarized by Joan Estruch in Saints and Schemers: Opus Dei and Its Paradoxes .

10. My institute has conducted research on this question under the direction of Robert Hefner, as reported in his book, Civil Islam . Similar to Islam,some have alleged an incompatibility of Eastern Christian Orthodoxy with modern economic and political institutions. Christopher Marsh has beenconducting a number of studies, some under the auspices of my institute, on religion in Communist and post-Communist Russia. See for exampleMarsh, “Counting One’s Blessings.”

ReferencesBellah, Robert. “Cultural Identity and Asian Modernization.” In Cultural Identity and Modernization in Asian Countries: Proceedings of Kokugakuin

University Centennial Symposium, 1093. http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cimac/bellah.html (accessed August 12, 2010).

Estruch, Joan. Saints and Schemers: Opus Dei and Its Paradoxes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

“Faith on the Move: Pentecostalism and its Potential Contribution to Development,” Centre for Development and Enterprise, August 2008. http://

www.cde.org.za/article.php?a_id=320 (accessed September 30, 2010).Hefner, Robert. Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Marsh, Christopher. “Counting One’s Blessings: The Economic Values of Russian Orthodox Christians.” In Markets, Morals, and Religion, ed. Jonathan B.Imber, 179–90. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2008.

Martin, David. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1990.

Martin, David. “Integration und Fragmentierung: Religionsmuster in Europa,” Transit 26 (Winter 2003–2004): 120–43.

Redding, Gordon. The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co, 1990.

Weber, Max. General Economic History. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003 [1927].

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Oxford: Routledge, 2001 [1904].

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Max Weber is Alive and Well and Living in Guatemala the Protestant Ethic Today