Religion and Capitalism (SumBlog5)

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain

Max Weber conducted a fascinating study on the relationship between capitalism and religion. He thought that religion lead to capitalism. This especially depended on the type of asceticism with which people were living. Innerworldly asceticism placed focus on living to succeed in one's lifetime. This would be measured by the amount of money one made and it was determined where one would spend the afterlife based off success. The second type of asceticism is outerwordly, where focus is placed on the afterlife, not on materialistic success. Weber saw the changes between innerworldly and outerworldly asceticism. He saw Protestants as more focused on innerworldly asceticism, as they tend to be more individualistic. Protestants believe in predestination, so they figured the way they could figure out if they were chosen or not to go to heaven would be if they were successful in a monetary sense on earth. Comparing Protestants and Catholics, Catholics tend to be more outerworldly. Therefore, a decrease in capitalism is found in predominantly Catholic countries, because they are more community focused and less individualistic. 

Though Weber theorized this difference years ago, it is still applicable today. We looked at a lot of different countries in class that perfectly supported his views. However, my group was focusing on Spain, and it was a split. Spain is a majority Catholic. Cathedrals are everywhere and most people will tell you they're Catholic. Half of the results supported Weber's theory, but the other half did not. Spain is still pretty individualistic. Why is this? The topic of religion as part of culture was brought up. Most of the people in Spain identify with the Catholic religion, but how many of them truly follow it? Being Catholic is just part of being a Spaniard. I think it's that way with religions in pretty much any country. Everyone identifies with a religion or belief system, but a lot of the time, you can't tell what someone believes because they don't act on it. I think it's important for people to ask themselves if their focus is innerworldly or outerworldly and base their actions accordingly.