Religion and the Rise of Capitalism · Chapter
IV: The Puritan Movement explained
This chapter examines the Puritan movement's complex relationship with economic ethics, tracing how Calvinism's fusion of business enterprise and moral discipline fractured in England under commercial expansion.
What happens
This chapter examines the Puritan movement's complex relationship with economic ethics, tracing how Calvinism's fusion of business enterprise and moral discipline fractured in England under commercial expansion. It explores the shift from collective moral enforcement to economic individualism, the role of Puritan casuistry exemplified by Richard Baxter's Christian Directory, and the eventual secularization of Puritan social philosophy.
Themes in this chapter
Conflict Between Ethics and Economics
The chapter details the tension between Puritan moral discipline and the demands of commercial enterprise, especially regarding usury and hard bargaining.
Transformation of Social Ethics
Traces the shift from a collective, church-enforced moral code to economic individualism and secularized social philosophy.
Puritanism and the Capitalist Spirit
Explores how Puritanism's endorsement of business enterprise and its later individualism prepared the way for commercial civilization.
Secularization of Social Thought
The chapter describes how Puritanism, as it became a political force, was secularized and committed to compromise.
Characters to notice
- The Puritan
Central figure of the chapter; embodies the tension between religious discipline and economic individualism.
- Richard Baxter
Author of the Christian Directory; key champion of Puritan casuistry and practical economic ethics.
- John Calvin
Foundational figure whose doctrine on moderate interest and fusion of enterprise with discipline is discussed.
- Calvinism
The theological system whose two elements—business imprimatur and inquisitorial discipline—flew apart in England.
- Thomas Cartwright
Mentioned as a composer of treatises expounding Puritan discipline.
- Richard Bancroft
Exposed the perils of Puritan discipline for the established ecclesiastical order.
- John Knox
Produced a Scottish edition of the godly discipline.
Key passages
“The complaint that religious radicalism, which aimed at upsetting the government of the Church, went hand in hand with an economic radicalism, which resented the restraints on individual self-interest imposed in the name of religion or of social policy, was being made by the stricter school of religious opinion quite early in the reign of Elizabeth.”
Early in Elizabeth's reign, conservative religious voices complained that religious radicals who wanted to overthrow Church governance also supported economic radicalism, opposing religious and social limits on self-interest.
Highlights the perceived link between religious and economic radicalism in Puritanism.
“The collectivist, half-communistic aspect, which had never been acclimatized in England, quietly dropped out of notice, to crop up once more, and for the last time, to the disgust and terror of merchant and landowner, in the popular agitation under the Commonwealth.”
The collectivist, almost communist side of Puritanism, never established in England, disappeared from view until it briefly resurfaced during the Commonwealth, alarming merchants and landowners.
Describes the decline of collectivist elements in Puritanism and their temporary revival.
“The transition from the idea of a moral code enforced by the Church, which had been characteristic of early Calvinism, to the economic individualism of the later Puritan movement took place, in fact, by way of the democratic agitation of the Independents.”
The shift from church-enforced morality in early Calvinism to the economic individualism of later Puritanism occurred through the democratic activism of the Independents.
Key transition point in the evolution of Puritan social ethics.
