The Weber Thesis on Capitalism in the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation

Abstract

The Weber thesis on a hypothetical imprint of Protestantism in the «spirit» of capitalism has been widely spread. Not willing to discredit his proposal (indemonstrability does not detract from plausibility), the truth is that, being falsifiable with difficulty, some careless wordings have been derived from it claiming to explain the present economical circumstances through differential religious facts. Being religion an unparalleled all covering feature, such circumstances depend on many factors. It has been claimed some scientific status through the most diverse socioeconomic data. This is something also applicable to those who claim to refute him. The intoxication so emanated from the Weber’s work seems disconcerting, seeing in it from an attempt to legitimate capitalism to a confirmation of the Black Legend. This work does not try to support or reject the thesis, but to investigate the kind of issues that could cause its formulation. For this purpose, it focuses on less usual questions, such as the analysis of the doctrinal features of Protestantism (basically faith alone and predestination) from which the Weber’s arguments would arise.