And honestly I feel embarrassed that I ceded more ground to it then I ever should have in the Capitalism is Atheistic in Nature post.
It began mostly as a Correlation Equals Causation Fallacy. Decades ago both Anti and Pro Capitalists tended to casually think of about 1500 as the end of the Middle Ages and thus say the Economic Developments that would eventually be called Capitalism and the Protestant Reformation started at about the same time and in about the same places.
However as far as the history of Capitalism goes that timeline is long outdated. Scholars and Historians have firmly documented that Decentralized Free Market Capitalism had been emerging in The Netherlands and maybe also Switzerland for centuries already before Martín Luther was born. Meanwhile Mercantile Capitalism was being practiced by Italian Sea Faring City-States like most notably Venice for even longer then that.
Medieval Origins of Capitalism in The Netherlands by Bas van Bavel
Pioneers of Capitalism The Netherlands 1000-1800 by Maarten Prak and Jan van Zanden
The Dutch Roots of Capitalism by Edwin an De Haar
Why Was Venice the Spring of Capitalism?
Now one can also argue that there was Protestantism already before 1500 as well, but it was not in the same places. On that subject we're talking about the Waldenses of Lyon and Piedmont, the Lollards of England and the Hussites in Bohemia. And it was only the last group that ever took over the government and became the ruling religion, and among the Husites of Bohemia the only ones that ever considered trying to Socio-Economically rework society in the wake of this Religious Reformation were the Taborite who were Anarcho-Communists. There was also an Anarcho-Communist tendency among the Lollards represented by John Ball.
But even back when the correlation seemed to be true I'd still say the Protestantism caused Capitalism idea was dumb logic. This was an era when much of Europe were ready to try new ideas, some were good ideas and some were bad, but certain places were more ready then others. Martín Luther however was firmly in bed with the established Feudal Aristocracy of northern and eastern Germany.
The Protestant Reformation was founded upon Martin Luther's hyper face value reading of Romans 3:27-28 that is often simplified and paraphrased as "Justified by Faith Alone apart from Works". Because of that in the Protestant mind Work is a Dirty Word.
I've watched Moon Channel's Video on the Protestant Work Ethic and seen other BreadTube videos that mention it. It often seems to be more specifically Calvinism. That because of the Predestination Theology people become obsessed with proving their Salvation by their hard Work.
1. Calvin like most followers of Augustine held the view that it's impossible to know who is "truly saved" or not.
2. When Protestant Christians do talk about Works as Evidence of Faith they mean morality in general, those Romans verses treat the word "work" as interchangeable with "deeds of the law" as in The Torah. Labor and economic productivity was not the point at all.
3. Economic Liberalism, The Justifying Ideology Modern Capitalism, is founded upon a belief in Free Will and Individualism while Calvinism's emphasis on Election creates a far more Collectivist mindset. But unfortunately not the good kind of Collectivism.
4. Among American Evangelicals, the ones actually creating the Video Games people usually mean by "Christian Video Games" proper Calvinism is kind of rare actually, with either Arminianism, Free Grace Eternal Security or Hypergrace being more common. Hypergrace as a product of the Charismatic Movement is tied to the Prosperity Gospel, it is the final form of Protestantism being molded by Capitalism, not the other way around. Hypergrace may be the subject of it's own post on this blog someday.
"How was The Netherlands able to be Calvinist and Capitalist at the same time for so long then" you may ask. The simple answer is they separated their civil values from their spiritual values. It actually took till the late 19th Century for people who are both Christians and Capitalists to start arguing they inherently go together. And then Cold War Propaganda under Eisenhour cemented the marriage.
The secular development of the early modern period that the Reformation does deserve credit for is the return of Democracy to Western Society. Something I already argued for elsewhere.
And among what I talk about there is how quickly Communist ideas popped up among these same Congregationalist Democratically inclined Reformers.
Liberals and Libertarians and American Conservatives love to claim Capitalism and Democracy are inherently inseparable, but we Leftists should know it's really the opposite.
But too many still want to concede "Parliamentary Democracy" to Capitalism, Marxist-Leninists and others who use "Reformism" as a dirty word abuse what Karl Marx meant by "Bourgeoise Democracy". As Tristam Pratorius The Social Democrat explains in their articles defending Kautsky and Bernstein (I support Kautsky but not Bernstein so much) when Marx and Engles used similar language it was literal, in most of Europe back then literally only Property Owners could vote. It was never meant to imply that Communists should abandon everything a Liberal recognizes as Democratic.
Work, or a work ethic, being a spiritual thing could not exist in the Catholic mind, as the separation between secular and spiritual realms was strict. But it wasn't in Protestant world because Calvin and co had decided that good work ethic was simply an obvious by-product of good faith. They seem to put the cart before the horse with this assumption, or something. There's all sorts of logical issues with their beliefs on this. But in the end secular work certainly became part of the spiritual in ways it never could in Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteThe Works as Evidence of Faith discourse that does exist about morality in general, the "Deeds of The Law" not Labor or Economic Productivity.
DeleteI didn't argue that it's Catholic, as I proved in an earlier post Capitalism is Godless, it exists in-spite of a culture's traditional Religion never because of it.
Delete