SOSC 1140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: Protestant Work Ethic
12 Apr 2020
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The protestant work ethic and spirit of capitalism. The uncertainty of whether one was destined for heaven or hell caused a lot of anxiety for protestant believers. To deal with this anxiety, they were given two pieces of advice. First, they were told it was their duty to believe that they were a member of the elect. It became a matter of duty for the believers to consider themselves among the elect few and to repeal every doubt about their state of grace as nothing more than the temptations of the devil. The second piece of advice that they were given was to work. They were told that hard work banishes religious doubt and gives certainty of one"s status among the saved. This piece of advice introduced the idea of working for works sake. Wasting time was considered a deadly sin, and therefore they must work as efficiently as possible.
