# Albrecht Ritschl — The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism character guide

> Albrecht Ritschl in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Ritschl, Ritschl 258

**First appearance:** 0011-b-pietism

## Snapshot

The liberal theologian whose reading of Pietism and Protestant history Weber cites in order to push against it.

## Who they are

Ritschl represents a powerful nineteenth-century interpretation of Protestant development that Weber treats as influential but insufficient, particularly on the place of Pietism within the larger story. By naming Ritschl, Weber signals that he is not writing in a vacuum but correcting a received theological narrative about what Protestantism did and did not contribute to modern life. In the essay's middle movement, Ritschl serves as a marker of the historiographical stakes: get Pietism wrong, and the causal chain linking faith to the spirit of capitalism comes apart.

## In the story

### [The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/chapters/iv-the-religious-foundations-of-worldly-asceticism)

His characterization of Pietism as religious dilettantism is referenced.

### [B. Pietism](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/chapters/b-pietism)

Noted that purely emotional Pietism is a religious dilettantism for leisure classes.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/characters/ritschl
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/characters