Introduction to Max Weber on Religions and Civilizations

Annual Review of Anthropology, 2002

This article is about the influence of the work of the German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) on English-speaking anthropologists. Although Weber does not figure prominently in the history of anthropology, his work has, nonetheless, had a profound influence on anthropological methodology and theoretical thinking on the relationship between religion and political-economy. The ‘interpretive anthropology’ first developed by Geertz is shown to have roots in Weber’s ‘interpretive sociology’. Bourdieu’s ‘theory of practice’ is also shown to be strongly Weberian in character. The anthropological study of religion, and particularly the debate over the foundations of this field between Geertz and Asad, is re-considered in light of Weber’s sociology of religion. His comparative study of the ethics of the world’s religions and particularly the ‘Weber thesis’ about the relationship between religion and the development of bourgeois capitalism are shown to have been the foundation for a large body of anthropological research on religion and political economy in societies in which the major world religions have been long established. The essay ends with a suggestion that the work of Weber on politics and meaning merits re-examination in light of contemporary anthropological interest, derived from Foucault, in power and knowledge

The biography of Weber, a member of a cosmopolitan family with some deeply religious members, may have inspired his main thesis: Protestantism influenced the rise of " modern capitalism, " a Western development that he considered of worldwide significance. In his attempt to identify the impact of religion on economic life, Weber analyzed the religiously rooted life-conduct (Lebensführung) of socially relevant groups in different civilizations, emphasizing the economic consequences of religious behavior. According to him, the members of certain Protestant sects experienced an incentive towards a rational, restrained attitude that firmly favored economic success through God-blessed work in one's own calling (Beruf). A comparison of religious ethics in major civilizations showed that rational prophecies were crucial in breaking away from magic beliefs, because they frequently led to broadly rational norms that believers observed to reach salvation. His implicitly anthropological explanation was that individuals resort to religious thinking to rationalize injustice and suffering. Weber opened up several paths for contemporary social thinkers concerned with the paradoxes of rationalization in modern, capitalist societies.

Over the last thirty years, "critical religion" has called for a return to natural science as a means of rejecting all implicit or explicit theological agendas in the academic study of religion, particularly in so-called "phenomenological" approaches. This paper argues that, while the critique of the phenomenology of religion is a vital step in religious studies theory and method, critical religion has failed to attend to a more fundamental disjuncture in religious studies, between ontological and axiological accounts of religious phenomena. This disjuncture is highlighted in the work of Max Weber and the way in which Frankfurt School Critical Theory takes up the Weberian legacy in its own social theory, showing that a properly academic study of religion can be undertaken without being either reductive or purely material and beholden to the demands of natural science.

Max Weber lived in Germany (1864-1920). He is considered as one of the most influential classical sociologists who contributed to the development and direction of sociology. He has had an influence on Jurisprudence as well. Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law student. He studied history, as well as earned his law doctorate by writing a doctoral dissertation on legal history. Weber was interested in the practical affairs of government and Politics and unveiled a definition of the state that has become pivotal to Western social thought. Weber and his sociology of religion His essay on "Protestant Ethics and Spirit of Capitalism" is relevant. He observed a close connection between religion and economic forces. His concept of religion is more ethical than theological. Religion is a vital influence in every day life. Weber wanted to examine its influence on the life of people. In his studies in the sociology of religion, Weber was trying to answer one fundamental question, i.e, " to what extent the religious conceptions of the world and of existence have influenced economic behavior of various societies?" It is also said that Weber wanted to test the basic contention of Karl Marx according to whom," all cultural phenomena, including religion, are fundamentally determined by the evolution of economic force." It is further argued that instead of explaining religious and other cultural behavior in terms of economic forces as Marx did, Weber wanted to explain economic behavior in terms of religion. According to Raymond Aron, Weber wanted to establish two main propositions in his work. One is, the behavior of men in various societies could be understood only in the context of their general conception of existence or world view. Hence, the religious outlook of the people can help one to understand the behavior of individuals and groups, including their economic 2 behavior. The second one is that religious conceptions are actually a determinant of economic behavior and hence one of the causes of economic change. (Shankar Rao C.N.,2005) Weber observed that capitalism was growing very fast in the world. He felt that capitalism of the western type was growing more in protestant societies than others. This observation made him to advance the hypothesis that "a certain interpretation of Protestantism has created some of the motivations favorable to the formation of the capitalist regime".