Protestant work ethic
The Protestant work ethic is a concept emphasizing the belief that individuals have a spiritual duty to work diligently and use their earnings responsibly. Rooted in Calvinistic thought, particularly the teachings of John Calvin and Martin Luther, this ideology suggests that earthly labor is a form of service to God, reflecting one's dedication to living a godly life. Followers of this ethic, especially the Puritans who settled in North America, valued hard work and frugality, viewing these traits as indicators of one’s spiritual fate. The notion gained wider recognition in the early 20th century through sociologist Max Weber, who argued that this work ethic was foundational to the development of capitalism.
Moreover, contemporary research indicates that the influence of the Protestant work ethic persists today; individuals in predominantly Protestant societies tend to place a higher emotional value on their work. Studies show that unemployment can lead to greater emotional distress among these individuals compared to those from other cultural backgrounds, highlighting the societal respect and significance attributed to work within Protestant-influenced communities. Overall, the Protestant work ethic continues to shape perceptions of labor and economic participation in modern society.
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Protestant work ethic
Protestant work ethic is the concept that a person has a spiritual duty to work hard and use the money earned from that work in a disciplined and careful way. The idea grew from the Calvinistic approach to religion and life as lived out by the Puritan settlers in North America in the seventeenth century. The concept was popularized nearly three centuries later in the writings of a German sociologist and economist. While the ideology of a Protestant work ethic began as a theological and religious ideal, the term has since come into common use in relation to sociology and economic studies. Some credit the Protestant work ethic as being the driving force behind capitalism.
Background
Sometimes referred to more simply as the Protestant ethic, the Protestant work ethic grew out of the practices of the followers of John Calvin. The French theologian put forth the idea that the fate of all humans is predestined by God, and that nothing one says or does on earth can change their eternal fate. His followers—Calvinists—believed that while one could not know his or her destination until after death, earthly behavior could be an indicator of those whom God had chosen for eternal life. They also believed that each person has two vocations: 1) to strive for a godly life, and 2) to work to earn a living. This idea was borrowed from Martin Luther, the German theologian credited with starting the Protestant Reformation.
Luther believed that the work one did on earth was a service to God, because that work was helpful to others. For example, the farmer who toiled in his fields was serving God because he was growing food for other people who could not grow their own. Luther felt this held true regardless of what work one did. This was different from the prevailing view of the time that saw some work as more worthwhile than other work, and saw monastic life as a higher and godlier calling than the manual work done by most people.
Calvin's followers, including the Puritans who were persecuted in England and migrated to North America seeking religious freedom starting in the 1620s, adopted this dual concept of vocation as test of godliness. They placed a strong emphasis on being disciplined and faithful in the work they did. They also believed in being careful with the money they made and in investing it to help grow business rather than spending it on an excess of material possessions. They asserted that this way of living and working brought honor to God and was an indication of their ultimate destination in the afterlife; those who worked hard and were careful with money were more likely to go to heaven than those who were lazy, shiftless, or wasteful with money. To the Puritan way of thinking, all work, regardless of how menial, was worthwhile if it was done to help others and as a means of striving for godliness.
In the early 1900s, German sociologist and economist Max Weber proposed that Calvin's teaching that all work is capable of raising one in holiness was the foundation of what he called the Protestant work ethic. Weber laid out his theory in the book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which was first published in Germany in 1905 and later published in English and other languages. It was his belief that the influence of the ethics proposed by Calvin led Protestants first in Europe and then in the American colonies to take pride in working hard and to use the financial fruits of their hard work to invest in business and grow the economy. This, Weber said, was the root of capitalism, the economic system under which individuals and private companies make decisions on products and prices based on the demands and needs of a free market system with competition.
Contemporary Impact
Even though Luther, Calvin, and the Puritans are long gone, their impact continues to be felt in people's lives in the twenty-first century. A study conducted by Dutch researchers André van Hoorn and Robbert Maseland and published in the July 2013 edition of the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization addressed this topic. Van Hoorn and Maseland thought that Weber's approach of questioning how people felt about work resulted in ambiguous data. They believed a better approach would be to assess people's reaction to being unemployed.
The pair analyzed responses from 150,000 individuals in eighty-two societies related to their thoughts and feelings about losing their jobs. The researchers discovered that in areas with a majority Protestant presence, people who lost their jobs felt worse about it than people in areas that did not have a strong Protestant influence. This held true whether the person answering the questions identified as Protestant or not.
People in the Protestant areas suffered 40 percent more emotional and mental harm from losing a job than did those in other areas, according to the study. The results indicated that Protestants and those who live near them draw more of their sense of value from their job and therefore suffer greater emotional loss when they are unemployed. From this, van Hoorn and Maseland concluded that unemployment is more troublesome to those in Protestant societies than to others, and that this is the result of the respect and value with which people in Protestant societies view work.
Bibliography
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Luzer, Daniel. "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real." Pacific Standard, 4 Sept. 2013, psmag.com/the-protestant-work-ethic-is-real-42740cb3e6d5#.sj750ea83. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
"Martin Luther." Christianity Today, www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/martin-luther.html. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
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Van Hoorn, André and Robbert Maseland. "Does a Protestant Work Ethic Exist? Evidence from the Well-Being Effect of Unemployment." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 91, July 2013, pp. 1–12, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268113000838. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
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