Foreword
discussed in them. How does Weber's thesis stand to-day, after a quarter of a century of research and criticism?
The interpretation of religious beliefs and social institutions as different expressions of a common psychological attitude, which Weber elaborated in his Aufsätze zur Religionssociologie, is no longer so novel as when he advanced it. Once stated, indeed, it has the air of a platitude. The capacity of human beings to departmentalize themselves is surprising, but it is not unlimited. It is obvious that, in so far as doctrines as to man's place in the universe are held with conviction, they will be reflected in the opinions formed of the nature of the social order most conducive to well-being, and that the habits moulded by the pressure of the economic environment will in turn set their stamp on religion. Nor can Weber's contention be disputed that Calvinism, at least in certain phases of its history, was associated with an attitude to questions of social ethics which contemporaries regarded as peculiarly its own. Its critics attacked it as the sanctimonious ally of commercial sharp practice. Its admirers applauded it
and Les Origines du Capitalisme Moderne (1926); M. Halbwachs, "Les Origines Puritaines du Capitalisme Moderne" (Revue d'histoire et philosophie religieuses, March-April 1925) and "Économistes et Historiens: Max Weber, une vie, un œuvre" (Annales d'Histoire Economique et Sociale, No. i, 1929); H, Hauser, Les Débuts du Capitalisme Moderne (1927); H. G. Wood, "The Influence of the Reformation on ideas concerning Wealth and Property," in Property, its Rights and Duties (1913); Talcott Parsons, "Capitalism in Recent German Literature" (Journal of Political Economy, December 1928 and February 1929); Frank H. Knight, "Historical and Theoretical Issues in the Problem of Modern Capitalism" (Journal of Economic and Business History, November 1928); Kemper Fulberton, "Calvinism and Capitalism" (Harvard Theological Review, July, 1928).
