John Bunyan

Bunyan stands in Weber's essay as a literary witness to the Puritan ethic, the kind of writer whose allegory shows how thoroughly the believer's daily conduct was saturated with religious meaning. His pilgrim does not wander; he progresses, and that word carries the whole weight of a life organized around calling, vigilance, and the refusal of idle enjoyment. In the early-middle arc, Bunyan helps Weber demonstrate that the spirit of capitalism's ancestors were not profit-seekers but conscience-driven travelers, men for whom money-making was an unintended byproduct of a much sterner pilgrimage.