# Nikolaus von Zinzendorf — The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism character guide

> Nikolaus von Zinzendorf in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Zinzendorf, Bernh . Becker

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

## Snapshot

The Herrnhut leader whose emotional, missionary Pietism tested how far ascetic Protestant discipline could bend without breaking into sentiment.

## Who they are

Zinzendorf heads the Moravian community at Herrnhut, a movement Weber cites when tracking Pietism's ethical offshoots and their uneven relationship to capitalist conduct. His religion runs warm where Puritanism runs cold, and that very warmth raises the question Weber pursues: whether a faith organized around feeling can still produce the methodical, this-worldly asceticism that feeds economic rationalism. In the middle chapters he functions as a counterweight, showing that ascetic Protestantism had more than one temperament and that not every branch pointed toward the same worldly result.

## In the story

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

Represented the emotional side of Pietism, associated with patriarchal employer attitudes and religious dilettantism.

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

Mentioned as a contrast; Methodism's emotional piety did not lead to the spiritualized religion of feeling characteristic of Zinzendorf's Pietism.

### [V: Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_protestant_ethic_and_the_spirit_of_capitalis_se/chapters/v-asceticism-and-the-spirit-of-capitalism)

His branch of Pietism glorified the loyal worker.

## Links

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