Synopses & Reviews
"The issue of the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism has been debated endlessly, but few scholars have seriously continued Weber's own research into the Reformation sources of seventeenth-century England. David Little's study was one of the first to do so, and remains an important contribution."—Guenther Roth, University of Washington
Synopsis
'Weber's famous study of the 'affinity' between the rise of rational bourgeois capitalism in England and Calvinist-Puritanism has for almost a century stirred up a cloud of dust and misunderstanding. Toward the end of settling some of the dust no one has previously made such an acute analysis of pre-revolutionary England as has David Little. On the one hand, he has applied and extended Weber's method, especially in the sphere of the law-monopoly and corporation law-thus filling a gap in these studies. He has also delineated the sharply conflicting conceptions of social order and of legitimation. On the the other hand, Little has given an invaluable critical survey of the extensive literature of Weber's thesis. This is a landmark in the study of the complex and varying relations between religion and society.' -James Luther Adams, Harvard Divinity School
Description
Includes bibliographical references and index.
About the Author
David Little is professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
Table of Contents
Preface 1984 by David Little
Preface by Robert N. Bellah
Acknowledgments
Part I - Introduction
1. The Problem
2. Religion, Order, and Law and the Thought of Max Weber
Part II - Theology and the Conflict of Order
3. The New Order of John Calvin
4. The Elite of the New Order: The Puritans
5. The Old English Order and its Anglican Defenders
Part III - Law and the Tensions of Society
6. Sir Edward Coke and the Conflict in Law and Order
Part IV - Conclusion
Bibliographical Essays
A. Reproductive Literature Critical of The Protestant Ethic
B. The Question of Economic Regulation in Pre-Revolutionary England
C. The Social Implications of Humanist Thought
D. Some Problems in the Interpretation of Puritanism
Index