The Connection Of Capitalism & Ideological Changes Essay

The emergence of capitalism in the West has influenced the development of the world for decades ahead and today capitalism is the prevailing socioeconomic system. However, capitalism is the socioeconomic and political system above all, which needs the cultural or ideological back up to make people confident that their capitalist way of life is the best one. Otherwise, people would like to change their life. At any rate, such dependence of capitalism on the cultural and ideological backup explains why capitalism is successful in Europe and North America and is not so successful in other parts of the world, like Asia or Africa. The emergence of capitalism in Europe coincided with the rise of Protestantism and capitalist ideology incorporated traditional Christian ideas and principles along with new ones, which still remained Christian by their nature. In this regard, Buddhist teaching was quite different and did not encourage Buddhist to shift toward the capitalist system. This is why capitalism stumbled in Asia and even now, when most of oriental countries have implemented the capitalist system or its core elements, there is the persisting gap between the prevailing ideology and the capitalist way of life and socioeconomic relations in the material world. In this regard, Christianity has proved to be more materialistic that helped Christianity and Protestantism to become the ideological ground for capitalism, whereas Buddism was and still remains much more psychological that makes Buddhist quite indifferent to material aspects of their existence, especially compared to westerners, who have the Christian background.

Basically, I agree that Christianity is the most materialistic religion among the world religions. Even though Christianity may seem to have little to do with the material world, if taken alone, but it turns out to be consistently more materialistic than Judaism or Islam, and even more materialistic compared to Buddhism. Paine also emphasizes the materialist nature of Christianity, which can be traced in works of many researchers:

“Christianity,” as Archbishop Temple used to contend, “is the most avowedly materialistic of all the great religions. Denis de Rougemont concurs: “Compared with the religion of the East, Christianity might be called materialism.” Judaism and Islam should be ranked beside Christianity in these judgments but thus enlarged their stand. (Paine, 114).

 For example, the key ideas of Christianity regulate the material world relations and provide practical recommendations on how people should live and behave in their life. Such recommendations are closely intertwined with the material world and show that Christianity is tied closely to material issues, which people confront in their regular life. For example, Christianity condemns homicide and other vices but such rules looks almost like legal regulations that determine social interactions and regulate the life of people in their community. Spiritual aspirations of Christians are closely intertwined with worshipping of God but even such worshiping has certain material background because only true Christians, who worship God and respect His laws, are supposed to find salvation on the Judgment Day, while others will perish.

In this regard, Smith was right, when he insisted that Christianity was the most materialistic religion of world religions. Smith’s idea that Christianity is the most materialistic religion means that Christianity is closely related to the material world and focuses on regular issues, which people experience and confront in their daily life.  Smith points out:

Compared with Western science, Western philosophy, or even Western art, Western religions are more otherworldly. But when they are compared with outer religion, their distinguishing feature is seen in their higher regard for nature and the greater extent to which they have come to grips with it. (Huston 113).

The focus on the material world and matters that affect the material life of people is very important because Christianity attempts to guide people in their regular life to address material issues, which they confront, resolve their problems, and find the path to the virtuous lifestyle. Spirituality is important for Christianity but still it is not the cornerstone of Christian religion and philosophy. For example, people can turn to Christianity, whenever they like and they should respect divine laws and worship God to gain God’s forgiveness and salvation. Christians should lead the virtuous life in according to divine laws, which regulate virtually all aspects of human life. Christian spirituality focuses on the respect to divine laws and virtual lifestyle and does not involve much focus on consciousness of people. This is why Christianity is one of the most materialistic world religions.

The focus of Christianity on the material world laid the foundation to the development of materialism-oriented ideologies and socioeconomic systems, such as capitalism. At this point, it is possible to refer to works of Max Weber, who believed that Christianity and capitalism were closely connected. To put it more precisely, Weber viewed the emergence of Protestantism as the ideological ground for the rise of capitalism. Therefore, he traces Christian roots in the rise of capitalism in Europe and later the world. According to Weber, the rise of Protestantism mirrored the growing strife of individuals for their own enterprises and their own pursue of happiness alongside the church (Parsons, 5). People attempted to change their relations with God by eliminating the church as a mediator. At the same time, the new ideology meant that traditional Christian ideas evolved and transformed into new Christian ideas that praised individual success, initiative and individual enterprises, which became the major ideological driving forces of the emergence of capitalism.

In fact, the connection between Protestantism and capitalism was historically predetermined because they emerged almost simultaneously in the West, namely in Europe. Weber is probably right in his revelation of the connection between Protestantism and capitalism because capitalism emerged as a new form of socioeconomic relations. The emergence of the new form of socioeconomic relations naturally resulted in profound cultural changes driven by changes in the economic and social life. As people have started to change their lifestyle under the impact of capitalism, they have developed the new ideology, which explained the surrounding world, shaped their worldview and set new principles and rules, which justified and maintained the existing socioeconomic order. However, such transformations do not fully match Weber’s idea of the emotional connection between Protestantism and capitalism. Instead, such transformations rather match Tawney’s view on the connection between Protestantism and capitalism, which had rational and material ground.  

Tawney agreed with Weber that Protestantism served as the ideological ground for capitalism, but he believed that Protestantism emphasized and promoted risk-taking and profit-making ethics of capitalism rather than individualism, initiative and personal strife for success as Weber insisted. Unlike Weber, who viewed the rise of Protestantism and its impact on the development of capitalist ideology at the emotional level, Tawney believed that Protestantism had the rational connection with capitalism. The rational connection derived from historical changes that took place in European society and culture because the transformation of traditional socioeconomic relations led to profound changes in the consciousness of people. The collective consciousness maintained by the traditional Christianity gave in to the individual consciousness grounded on the pursuit of the individual success and prosperity, which became the milestone element of capitalist ideology and one of the important element of Protestantism. Such transformations stimulated Protestantism to elaborate new ideology within the Christian framework which could and did mirrored socioeconomic changes and encouraged people to undertake risks in their pursue of success, wealth and prosperity. Such rational explanation of the connection between Protestantism and capitalism seems to be more plausible than Weber’s emotional connection between Protestantism and capitalism.

In contrast to Christianity that traditionally focused on the material world and issues which people confronted in their daily life, Buddhism focused more on spirituality. This is why such a focus of Buddhism on spirituality and a large indifference to the material world makes this religion the most psychological religion among the world religions, especially compared to Christianity. The spirituality comprises the major part of Buddhism as a religious and philosophy teaching because Bddhism encourages people to focus on the development of their consciousness. Buddhists are supposed to each the enlightenment and keep progressing in their personal development to improve their self as long as possible. Buddhism does not impose any limits on the progress of one’s consciousness because people are supposed to focus on the improvement of their self and spiritual development in the course of their life and there no limits to their progress.

In addition, Buddhism traditionally focuses on the personal experience and consciousness as the core elements of this religious teaching. The consciousness of Buddhist is prior to the material world. Buddhists view the spiritual development of individuals as being more important than their social standing, skills and abilities. Even though Christianity also denies the importance of material values, such as money or commodity for wellbeing of Christians, but Christianity rather teaches people to live in harmony with the material world, to take what people have for granted, than to develop their spirituality over and over again as does Buddhism. The individual consciousness is so important for Buddhists that they tend to create the universe within their own self. Their inner world is often more important than the outside one. This is why there is little connection between the inner world of Buddhists and their environment. Buddhism promotes spirituality and improvement of one’s inner world instead of gaining some material benefits or observation of some rules that determine their behavior in their regular life. They use material items as means to maintain their body and material items turn and satisfaction of their basic physical needs turn out to be irrelevant to their spiritual progress.

Buddhism does not contradict to the development of capitalism and the contemporary consumerist society but it still has little in common with the capitalist culture and consumerism that prevail in the contemporary society. In fact, Buddhism limits consistently the consumer behavior from the traditional western or capitalist viewpoint because Buddhism does not encourage people to consume more and purchase commodities to make their life better in a western sense. Instead, Buddhism rather encourages buying and consuming as much as people need to live. To put it in simple words, Buddhism slogan is rather ‘one eats to live’ than ‘one lives to eat’, which is the slogan of the contemporary consumerist society and capitalist system. This is why Buddhism is alien to the contemporary consumerist society, which focuses on material aspects of human existence. The lack of spirituality is one of the major issues of the contemporary consumerist society and there is little room for spiritual, non-material values. At the same time, Buddhism is a challenge to the contemporary consumerist ideology, because it inspires the spiritual development, which seems to be totally abandoned in the consumerist world. This is why Buddhism can offer the consumerist society the alternative ideology, which may shift human values toward spirituality instead of material consumption. However, such a shift may challenge the consumerist nature of the capitalist system that prevails in the world so far.

Thus, the emergence and development of capitalism involved profound ideological and cultural changes. This is why Protestantism emerged as a new religion and ideological ground for capitalism within the Christian framework. The adaptation of traditional Christian teaching was essential to justify the development of capitalism and related socioeconomic changes. Protestantism was the response of society to changes in their socioeconomic environment as people needed the ideology that would justify and explain their complex social relations. At the same time, Christianity and later Protestantism became a good ground for the rise of capitalism because of their traditional focus on materialism, whereas Buddhism’s focus on spirituality alienates this religion from the ideology and socioeconomic relations of capitalism.

References:

Paine, J. (2012). The Huston Smith Reader. University of California Press.

Parsons, T. (1930). Translator’s Preface, 5-6.

Smith, H. Three Ways of Relating to the World. Three Geographies. Three Religious Traditions.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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