The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism side the world in the world and its conduet within Id beyond, was had from the monastery e it had, on the wh: ly life touched. Now it strode into the slammed the the world un- iarket-place of ort nor to make cl discussion cna ER V SCETICISM AND. ‘THE CAPITALISM IRIE OFThe Protestant Ethie and the Spirit of Capitalism new editions and translations. He was a Presbyterian of the Westmi He w fanatical enth ind of the Restorat der the last, b ay Puritan cthies, and is djusted to the practi terial activity. 1 of 1 Theologische Bedenken, as representative of German Pictism, Barclay's Apology for the Quakers, representatives of a and f the Ne as such is a great danger; temptation and its pursuit? is not only ser 156 scless as compared with Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism dominating importance of but it is morally suspect. Here ascet turned much more sharply against the acquisi earthly goods than it did in Calvin, who saw no hin- drance to the effectiveness of the clergy in their wealth, but rather a th rable enhancement of th tige. Hence means profitably. the pursuit of money and goods may be gathered uut_end from Puritan writings, and may rasted with the late medieval ethical literature, which was much more open-minded on this point Moreover, these doubts were meant with p. snes; only it is necessary to examine them somewhat more closely in order to understand their ethic Kingdom moral objection is to relaxation in the sccurity of on, the enjoyment of wealth with the conse- ince of idleness and the temptations of the flesh Wve all of distraction from the pursuit of a right life, In fact, it is only because possession involves ¢ inger of relaxation that it is ubjectionable at all. For the saints’ everlasting rest is in the next world; on earth man must, to be certain of his state of grace, “do the works of him who sent him, as long as it is yet day”, Not leisure and enjoyment, but only activity Serves to increase the glory of God, according to the definite manifest if Fis will.” Waste of time is thus the first and in_princ deadliest of sins. The span of human life i short and precious to make sure of one’s uwn elec ty, idle talk, Tusury - 7 ignificance and implications, ‘The real \ aThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism even more sleep than is necessary for health,!? six to at most cight hours, is worthy of absolute moral con- demnation.™ It does not yet hold, with Franklin, that time is money, but the proposition is true in a certain spiritual sense, It is infinitely valuable because every hour Jost is lost w labour for the glory of God! Thus inactive contemplation is also valueless, or even directly reprehensible if it is at the expense of one’s daily work." For it is less pleasing to God than the active performance of His will in a calling.” Besides, Sunday is provided for that, and, according to Baxter, it isalways those who are not diligent in their callings who have no time for God when the occasion demands it.'7 Accordingly, Baxter’s principal work is dominated by the continually repeated, often almost passionate preaching of hard, continuous bodily or mental labour. It is due to a combination of two different motives. Labour is, on the one hand, an approved ascetic technique, as it always has been® in the Western Church, in sharp contrast not only to the Orient but to almost all monastic rules the world over! It is in Particular the specific defence against all those tempta- tions which Puritanism united under the name of the unclean life, whose réle for it was by no means small. The sexual asceticism of Puritanism ditlers only in degree, not in fundamental principle, from that of monasticism and on account of the Puritan conception of marriage, its practical influence is more far-reaching than that of the latter. For sexual intercourse is per- mitted, even within marriage, only as the means willed by God for the increase of His glory according to th commandment, “Be fruitful and multiply.” ® Along 158 7 Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism with a moderate vegetable diet and cold baths, the same prescription is given for all sexual temptations as is used against religious doubts and a sense of moral unworthiness: “Work hard in your calling.”*? But the most important thing was that even beyond that labour came to be considered in itself * the end of life, ordained as such by God, St. Paul’s “He who will not work shall not eat” holds unconditionally for every- one? Unwillingness 10 work is symptomatic of the lack of grace Here the difference from the mediaeval view-point becomes quite evident. Thomas Aquinas also gave an interpretation of that statement of St. Paul. But for him?? labour is only necessary naturali ratione tor the maintenance of individual and community. Where this end is achieved, the precept ceases to have any meaning, Moreover, it holds only for the race, not for every individual It dues not apply to anyone who can live without labour on_his possessions, and of course contemplation, as fi spiritual form of action} in the Kingdom of God, takes precedence over the conmand- ment in its literal sense. Moreover, for the popular theology of the time, the highest form of monastic productivity lay in the increase of the Thesaurus ecclesice through prayer and chant. Now only do these exceptions to the duty to labour naturally no longer hold for Baxter, but he holds most emphatically that wealth does not exempt anyone from the unconditional command. Even the wealthy shall not cat without working, for even though they do not need to labour to support their own needs, there is God’s commandment which they, like the poor, must 159The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism obey.# For everyone without exception God’s Provi- dence has prepared a calling, which he should profess and in which he should labour. And ¢ ing is not, it was for the Lutheran,” a fate to which he must submit and which he must make the best of, but God’s commandment to the individual to work for the divine ubtle difference had far-reaching juences, and became connected with nt of the providential interpreta w economic order which had begun in scl phenomenon of the d nce of the ices assigned to is cosmos follow ex causis naturalibus and are fortuitous (contingent in the Scholastic termin- ology). The differentiation of men xcupations established through historical development became for Luther, as we have scen, a direct result of he divine will. The perseverance of the individual in ie place and within the limits which God had assigned » him was a religious duty. This was the more ly the consequence since the relations of Luther- rid were in general uncertai ig and remained so. Ethical principles for the of the world could not be found in Luther's ideas; in fact it never quite freed itself from Pauline indifference. Hence the world had to be accepted as it was, and this alone could be But in the Puritan vie to the classes and ade a religious duty the providential characte of the play of private economic interests takes on a Asceticism and the Spirit of CapitaliThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism n itself, but rat has irretrieva Hence the several useful for tive, if it is * and not s and is made for the purpose of asing to God, which re usefu sured primarily in us in terms of the importance of or the community. But a in practice the most important, n is found in\private profitableness.2 For if nd the Puritan sees in all the ows one of His elect a chance of . Hence the faithful by taking advantage of nw you a way in which n in another way (without er), if you refuse this nful way, you cross one of th J you ‘refuse to be God's se them for Him for it wrong to yu and choose the less ion is bad only when it is w and wi performance of but actually enjoined. h was entrusted ro wish to be eomed to say r way the justified the activities gence of the seigneur and the parven y detestable to ascetic f the sober, blesseth His trade vod me s. The whole power o rewards His px n® who had succe if the God of the ie for their about those the divine hi sstament, w obedience in this life," necessarily exercised @ similar influence on the Puritan who, wing Baxter vice, compared his own state of grace with that of 5s interpreted 163 and in the proc