17th Century Religion

There is no doubt that religious beliefs have control over the way that people live their lives. In the early 17th century, even as philosophers and scientists were questioning the role of religion in everyday life, a Christian identity was so integral to existence that many men or peasants were simply known as Christians. During the time of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, religion and many other dearly held beliefs were being examined and scrutinized more so than they ever had been before. The consequence of this intense examination is that religion would become more and more separate from certain areas of life, allowing more freedom in individual opinion and scientific thought. Some of the spheres where religion would become
less significant were politics, science, and economics. Industrialization would not only come from this newly created religious question, but it would increase the divide between previously held beliefs and newly developing ones. It was once stated that “upheaval and new religions go well together,” or rather that, there is a relationship between political and economic change and the change in traditional belief systems. Permitting a change in religious beliefs allows for other ways of life to then follow and transform also. The reason why upheaval and new religions go well together is that new religions open the door for the change in society and in many other extents.
Without some change, industrialization would not have been possible. Industrialization could only take place within a society that had all of the necessary prerequisites. This includes available materials, a mobile labor force, an incentive to industrialize, and most importantly a surplus. A society has to be able to produce more goods than they will immediately consume, and they will often need to have a reason for doing so. A society that considers excess a bad thing would have a very difficult time finding the motivation to produce and maintain a surplus. According to Jan de Vries, before the 17th century, luxury and excess were associated directly with sin. Having more than what you needed was considered to be wasteful, vain, and something reserved completely for the aristocracy and upper classes. However, after the turn of the 17th century, as culture became more secularized in general, some forms of luxury became acceptable. To have enough to be considered comfortable was no longer considered distasteful, or non-Christian. Luxury and the idea of a surplus became synonymous with Christianity and morality, rather than an opposing idea.
Europeans also had to be able to produce the surplus in the first place. With Protestantism came a shift. This modification in Christian ideology took place in European society, specifically in Western Europe and England where industrialization would eventually begin. Sociologist Max Weber explained in his book The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that he saw a connection between a religious transformation and an economic one. “The emancipation from economic traditionalism appears, no doubt, to be a factor which would greatly strengthen the tendency to doubt the sanctity of the religious tradition, as of all traditional authorities.” Weber supports the idea that religious change or new Protestant religious thought can be associated with the doubt of tradition in other areas of life. The change that Weber identified as strengthening the tendency to doubt was the shift from Catholicism to Protestantism. Weber identified that religious change could be good, as it further encouraged economic change. Weber also recognized what he called the problem, which was a huge disparity in the success of those who were Protestant, and those who were Catholic. Weber states that Protestants were more commonly found in business and generally had higher incomes, and passed on larger inheritances than their Catholic counterparts. The thought behind this idea is one that has been elaborated on by many historians and sociologists since Weber wrote it; that it is not simply Protestants who can work better or even differently, but that an ideological shift such as this religious shift is necessary to produce radical economic success that would prove crucial to industrialization.
Max Weber’s theory was that a Protestant work ethic was key to industrialization. Robert Enoch Buck takes that argument one step further, and asks in what other ways religion was significant to the development of an industrializing economy. The author ends up reaching three separate conclusions. First of all, that Protestant religious ideology produced a new motivation for economic success. This is something on which Buck agrees with Weber. In Buck’s article “Protestantism and Industrialization: An Examination of Three Alternative Models of the Relationship between Religion and Capitalism” he gives an example of two very similar towns with similar opportunities for industrialization, where both are largely Protestant, but one is majority Quaker and the other majority Puritan. The Quaker town manages to outdo the Puritan town in production and profit, and inevitably industrializes first. Buck attributes this success to the Protestant way of thinking, as would Weber. Buck only adds that in this case he is emphasizing the Quakers, as they had more religious and social freedom than their Puritan counterparts. The author adds that religion allowed people to change their economic behavior thanks to new and less oppressive religious doctrine. In the example of the two towns detailed by Buck, the successful town had much more liberal Protestant doctrine than the Puritan town. Buck states that this allowed the people of the Quaker town more personal and economic freedom and in the end, that worked to their benefit. Finally, the author concludes his argument by stating that because religion altered social structure, economic advances could be made. He reasons that when a group of people has a strict and repressive religious doctrine and little social freedom, they are driven into tight knit groups with which they may only do business. Religious freedom on the other hand, encourages people of different groups and beliefs to work with each other, therefore encouraging economic relations.
The key to the beginning of this shift is the Protestant Reformation, or the change from a predominantly Catholic worldview, to the many others created by various Protestant leaders.
The shift from Catholicism to Protestantism specifically welcomed in the idea of a vocation or calling in which you would work and use your time productively in order to glorify God. Working and doing well in your work became part of a new religious identity. R.H. Tawney stated that the view became, “It is the first duty of the Christian to know and believe in God; it is by faith that he will be saved. But faith is not a mere profession… The only genuine faith is the faith which produces works.” Working hard was now a statement of faith. A product of working hard could possibly be making a surplus of money. Making money in excess, which would have been frowned upon in the past could now also be a symbol of piety. These changes continued in Calvinism specifically, where individuals were now allowed to charge interest on loans – which was previously considered usury, and condemned by the Catholic Church. The practice of making money from loaning others money, key in encouraging economic growth and indicative of a changing economic and religious mindset, was encouraged by John Calvin. “…Commercial enterprise was no longer to be suspected as inherently evil, but was properly a field for fulfillment of one’s religious duty.” The authors Dillenberger and Welch expanded on Calvin specifically, as he was a Protestant leader that was particularly understanding and welcoming to some of the social changes that could provide economic benefit to his followers. The change on the rule of interest, and the implementation of new values reinforce this idea specifically. Calvin encouraged, “…industry, sobriety, and thrift as a means of glorifying God…” Economic individualism was now an established, and would flourish from this point
onward.