doiSerbia

Religion as a factor of political culture and economic development

Ristić Irena (Institut društvenih nauka, Beograd)

In his essay “The Protestant Ethic” Max Weber explains the specific economic development and the foundation of capitalism in Western Europe due to the appearance of protestant sects and the “spirit of capitalism”. By doing so, Weber assigns religion a significant place among the factors of social and economic development. Taking Weber’s theory and argumentation as a starting point, this article drafts a thesis on “orthodox ethic” and determines its role in the development of the “spirit of capitalism” in orthodox countries. For that purpose this article compares political-historical circumstances on the territory of the Western and Eastern Church on one, and pictures the theological-philosophical basis of both Protestantism and Orthodoxy on the other side.

Keywords: protestant ethic, Max Weber, orthodoxy, Western Church, Eastern Church