Theories of religion - Weber and Weberian approaches

Key ideas

• Weber believed that ideas, including religous ideas, had an independant effect on social and economic change
• To demonstrate this, he examined the relationship between new religous ideas and the development of the capitalist system of production
• Specifically he argued thatthe ethical orientation of Calvinist Protestants led to practices that gave impetus to capitalist modes of production - the 'spirit of capitalism' 
• Catholic culture was portrayed as being concerned with conspicuous consumption, whereas Protestantism encouraged a frugal frame of mind in which income was ploughed back into production rather than spent on luxuries
• Therefore there was an elective affinity…