Protestant/Puritan Work Ethic – Where did it come from?
“Puritan Work Ethic” is clearly a misstatement – Puritans were hardworking ascetic fundamentalists but hardly a mainstream sect in Europe, where it was and is an important thing to distinguish between development of England and Germany compared with (say) France and Spain. Further, I think Weber is being very much undervalued. Although the Protestant Work Ethic idea is overly simplistic today, at the time it was an extremely important book and is still today a must-read for any theorist or policy student. There is a great deal of value to understanding how cultural differences related to religion affect societies in large and small ways. The effects of the difference between Catholic and Protestant places is still keenly felt in places like Quebec (in comparison with Ontario) and very likely any comparison of Mexico/US or Ireland/England.
The Protestant Work Ethic I believe is derived from Max Weber’s famous work of the same title, which was an examination of capitalism. Simplified, the idea is this: back in the day (18th Century) of fiery Protestant Calvinist preachers like Jonathon Edwards (he of Sinners in the hands of an Angry God fame) put forth the idea that people are “elected” to go to heaven, that is God has known since the beginning of time, exactly who will go to Heaven and who will go to Hell. This means that “works” has nothing to do with your chances of making the cut, you are either in or out, “by the grace of God”. As you might imagine this idea really stressed the congregation out because it caused such a great deal of uncertainty. I can just imagine the parishoners pulling nervously at their collars and looking at each in the p
