In his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber brings together material published in the form of two long articles in 1904 and 1905. In these articles, Weber tries to show the beginnings of capitalism and to relate this to the spirit of the Reformation, that period when Protestantism developed, breaking away from the control of the Catholic Church and asserting not only a religious independence but a different social view that would also have an influence in economic matters. Weber finds that there is a connection between being Protestant and being a business leader and an owner of capital--he says that statistics show this to be a fact in his own time and also to be a historical fact. Yet, Weber's work begins with an anomaly. It is usually thought that those whose lives are bound up with the pursuit of money are either indifferent to religion or openly hostile to it, since their actions are directed toward the material world and not the immaterial world of spirituality. Protestantism, however, demanded a more vigorous discipline than did Catholicism and thus extended the religious factor into all spheres of life, including the economic sphere. Weber offers an interesting analysis of this process and points to a force that prevailed in much of American history in the form of the work ethic.
Weber finds that the spirit of modern capitalism is characterized by a unique combination of attitudes. On the one hand there is a dedication to amassing wealth through legitimate economic activity, and on the other hand there is an avoidance of the use of this income for personal enjoyment, an idea derived from the view that doing good work is both a duty and a virtue. Weber sees that the idea of a calling came into being at the time of the Reformation, a concept that does not exist in Catholicism or in Antiquity. The significance of this idea in Protestantism is that it serves to bring the affairs of daily lif...