Religion and the Rise of Capitalism · Question
How does Religion and the Rise of Capitalism develop the theme of Secularization of Social Thought?
Answer
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R. H. Tawney develops Secularization of Social Thought across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
The book traces the shift from a medieval worldview where religion governed all aspects of life, including economics, to a modern one where economic activity is treated as a separate, secular sphere governed by its own laws of expediency rather than moral or religious criteria.
Examines how religious ideas about economics gradually gave way to secular economic theories.
The chapter describes the gradual secularization of economic thought after the Restoration, as the claim of religion to maintain rules of good conscience in economic affairs vanished.
The chapter highlights the growth of lay opinion that argued economics and ethics are separate, and the replacement of religious teleology with the analogy of a self-regulating mechanism driven by economic motives.
Evidence in the book
- Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Examines how religious ideas about economics gradually gave way to secular economic theories.
- I: The Medieval Background
The chapter describes the gradual secularization of economic thought after the Restoration, as the claim of religion to maintain rules of good conscience in economic affairs vanished.
- The Growth of Individualism
The chapter highlights the growth of lay opinion that argued economics and ethics are separate, and the replacement of religious teleology with the analogy of a self-regulating mechanism driven by economic motives.
- IV: The Puritan Movement
The chapter describes how Puritanism, as it became a political force, was secularized and committed to compromise.
- III: The Triumph of Economic Virtues
Puritanism, in becoming a political force, was secularized and committed to compromise, with its practical result being liberty rather than discipline.
