# John Wesley — The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism character guide

> John Wesley in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Wesley, John Wesley

**First appearance:** 0012-c-methodism

## Snapshot

The Methodist founder whose preaching on industry and wealth left his followers rich, devout, and increasingly unsure what to do about it.

## Who they are

Wesley represents the late stage of the ascetic story, where religious discipline has done its economic work and produced prosperity it never intended. His teachings on work and wealth sit uneasily beside the otherworldliness he demanded, and Weber uses him to show how the Protestant ethic tends to generate the very conditions that erode it. He is the quiet irony at the edge of the argument.

## 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)

Founder of Methodism, whose emphasis on emotional conversion and sanctification is analyzed.

### [A. Calvinism](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/chapters/a-calvinism)

Mentioned as a believer in universal grace, contrasting with Whitefield's Calvinism.

### [C. Methodism](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/chapters/c-methodism)

Central figure; his emphasis on feeling and conversion shaped Methodism's emotional character, and his doctrine of sanctification provided a basis for certitudo salutis.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/characters/wesley
- 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