The World
During the time of the feudal system, the government was at a standstill. The Catholic Church had the final word on how things would work. People were born into a certain role in life, and there was nothing the citizens could do about it. The king ruled over everyone, the lords over the knights, and the knights over the serfs. This all changed through the works of Martin Luther. Martin Luther was the man who started the religions of Protestantism. He was a member of one of the Christian churches deriving from the Reformation. The Reformation started in the 16th century when Martin Luther came to the Catholic Church and challenged their rule. He thought that people should be able to increase their production in life. The fact is they were able to work because that is what G-d wanted them to do, and also to be able to make money because this was a sign of grace. Max Weber explains the resulting Protestant Ethic in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in which he shows how the Protestant reformation changed our society into the capitalistic regime it is today. Everything was stable in the Catholic regime. People had their
jobs. People would grow up knowing they would be a locksmith or a shoe man, and that was the job that they accomplished. No locksmith made more than any other locksmith though. The Catholic Church found it sinful to make more of a profit than anyone else in the industry. If a carpenter decided to raise his cost one-day the Catholic Church would reprimand them. If a shoe man decided he would open an hour early and close an hour late this was also looked upon in shame. This was a rigid society in which people could not achieve more even if they wanted to, because their lives were predetermined. But, later, "Since asceticism undertook to remodel the world and to work out its ideals in the world, material goods have gained out its ideals in the world, material good have gained an increasingly and finally and inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous period in history"(181). In medieval times no one cared to have more than the other. No one needed material things as a nice car, a watch, and jewelry. These material goods are something that people need nowadays. People need nice clothes; they need to have something no one else has. To get these things they have to work just that much harder than the person next to them. Capitalistic society lets us have these things. They are really of no worth to any of us. What is the loss of a diamond necklace if one that was loved wore it, and now it is gone. The loved one is what is to worry about, not the necklace, and that is a problem in today's society. According to John Calvin, who was the man who devised Calvinism, which came out of Protestantism believed that "All creation, including of course the fact, as it undoubtedly was for Calvin, that only a small proportion of men are chosen for eternal grace, can have any meaning only as means to the glory and majesty of God. To apply earthly standards of justice to His sovereign decrees is meaningless and an insult to His Majesty, since He and He alone is free, i.e. is subject to no law" (103). Not every man in this world is going to live a glorious life after death. No man can escape the law of his present life. Work as they can, live their lives now and be free, because when they pass on it may be all over. Calvinists thought they were the chosen people. They lived their lives looking at predestination. What this means is that they believed their lives were determined before they were born. If a man grew up to be successful then this was a way of saying that they have been blessed by G-d. Everyone wanted to be looked at as being accepted by G-d so everybody worked the best that they could so they would be chosen by G-d. If someone were not successful, this would create great anxiety. Calvinism was a very religious version of Protestantism. Work for G-d because work gives the people a way to better themselves, and money was G-d's way of assigning grace. If they're doing well it's because they're blessed by G-d. Why was it so hard for traditionalistic views to be changed into capitali
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Approximate Word count = 2030
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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