Religion and the Rise of Capitalism · Character
Puritanism
A movement torn between iron discipline and radical individualism, whose internal war over economic life Tawney treats as the century's decisive conflict.
supporting
Also known as Puritanism
First appearance: religion and the rise of capitalism
As a supporting figure in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Puritanism is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.
Referenced as an offshoot of Calvinism that took its stand on the side of urban industry and commercial enterprise.
Puritanism in Tawney's telling contains both a conservative, collectivist impulse grasping at godly discipline and a revolutionary individualism that spurned all human ordinances. Its classes and congregations enforced a rigorous rule of life, yet its theology of solitary communion with God undermined the social character of that very discipline. The tension is that Puritanism would have been scandalized by economic license, yet its own spiritual premises helped unleash the individualism it denounced, a contradiction that splits apart in the furnace of the Civil War.
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- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
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Puritanism appears across 4 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.
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See Puritanism in religion and the rise of capitalism