{"id":891,"date":"2011-02-11T12:41:37","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T12:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html"},"modified":"2011-02-11T12:41:37","modified_gmt":"2011-02-11T12:41:37","slug":"the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit of Capitalism – Is it Virtuous?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I’ve just finished a book by Max Weber –  <\/span>The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/a>. <\/i>This book follows the idea that most Christians are capitalists and explores the question, “Is there something wrong with it?”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A short summary of the book? Weber argues that the religious ideas of groups such as the Calvinists played a role in creating the capitalistic spirit. He observes a correlation between being Protestant and being involved in business, and declares his intent to explore religion as a potential cause of the modern economic conditions. He argues that the modern spirit of capitalism sees profit as an end in itself, and pursuing profit as virtuous. Weber’s goal is to understand the source of this spirit. He turns to Protestantism for a potential explanation.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
I am not one to quickly jump on the “Capitalist bashing” bandwagon. The people who criticize Capitalism the loudest do so from the perch of the blessings it has afforded. Although I do agree that there are things wrong with the system. You can always have too much of a good thing and anything in excess creates enormous problems. However, Capitalism has changed the world and as I travel in some of the poorest nations in the world I can say that the one thing they are lacking is an economy that would create jobs and change their environment.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Is it virtuous? Weber agues that capitalism was fueled by Protestantism and that eventually, because of their religious beliefs, certain aspects of it became virtuous. In other words, their money became spiritual. They would give it to God or his purposes, etc. As we know, ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’ So for me, capitalism in and of itself isn’t virtuous, it’s what we do with it that makes it so. Virtue is a moral principle rooted in the heart.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Consumerism is one of the children Capitalism has birthed that has major ramifications for the world’s poor. This is the focus of <\/span>Dr. Jason Clark<\/a>, who is the lead mentor in my Doctoral program. I found this video on his blog about Capitalism and Charity<\/a> by Slovoj Zizek<\/a>, a Slovenian professor on the Hypocrisy of Conscious Consumerism. I don’t agree with everything he says here, but I must admit his ideas have some fascinating ramifications. He is particularly critical of causal marketing companies like Tom’s Shoes and Starbucks. Many of his ideas have hit me right between the eyes as it relates to what we do at Children’s HopeChest<\/a>. Everyone working with the poor and involved in charitable work needs to watch this. Would love to hear your thoughts. <\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve just finished a book by Max Weber –  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This book follows the idea that most Christians are capitalists and explores the question, “Is there something wrong with it?” A short summary of the book? Weber argues that the religious ideas of groups such as the Calvinists played…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-ministry-degree"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Spirit of Capitalism - Is it Virtuous? - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Spirit of Capitalism - Is it Virtuous? - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve just finished a book by Max Weber –  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This book follows the idea that most Christians are capitalists and explores the question, “Is there something wrong with it?” A short summary of the book? Weber argues that the religious ideas of groups such as the Calvinists played…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-11T12:41:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Spirit of Capitalism - Is it Virtuous? - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Spirit of Capitalism - Is it Virtuous? - Red Letters","og_description":"I’ve just finished a book by Max Weber –  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This book follows the idea that most Christians are capitalists and explores the question, “Is there something wrong with it?” A short summary of the book? Weber argues that the religious ideas of groups such as the Calvinists played…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2011-02-11T12:41:37+00:00","author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html","name":"The Spirit of Capitalism - Is it Virtuous? - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-11T12:41:37+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-11T12:41:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/the-spirit-of-capitalism-is-it-virtuous.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Spirit of Capitalism – Is it Virtuous?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}