# Puritanism — Religion and the Rise of Capitalism character guide

> Puritanism in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R. H. Tawney.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Puritanism

**First appearance:** 0003-religion-and-the-rise-of-capitalism

## Snapshot

A movement torn between iron discipline and radical individualism, whose internal war over economic life Tawney treats as the century's decisive conflict.

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [III: Calvin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/chapters/iii-calvin)

Referenced as an offshoot of Calvinism that took its stand on the side of urban industry and commercial enterprise.

### [Puritanism and Society](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/chapters/i-puritanism-and-society)

Described as the true English Reformation, a movement that determined conceptions of theology, politics, business, family, and personal behavior.

### [III: The Triumph of Economic Virtues](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/chapters/iii-the-triumph-of-economic-virtues)

Puritanism is portrayed as adding a halo of ethical sanctification to economic expediency, reconciling religion and business.

### [Conclusion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/chapters/v-conclusion)

Referenced in the context of the Puritan revolution and its aftermath of economic enterprise.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/characters/puritanism
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/characters