Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion - OAPEN

[Pages:215]Christopher Adair-Toteff Max Weber's Sociology of Religion

Christopher Adair-Toteff

Max Weber's Sociology of Religion

Mohr Siebeck

Christopher Adair-Toteff, born 1950; 1992 PhD in philosophy from the University of South Florida; has held professorships in Europe and the US; has published widely on the Neo-Kantians and especially on Max Weber; currently affiliated with the University of South Florida (Tampa) and the University of Kent (Canterbury).

e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-154430-9 ISBN978-3-16-154137-7 Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio graphie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at . ? 2016 by Mohr Siebeck, T?bingen, Germany. mohr.de This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher's written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was typeset using Garamond typeface, printed on non-aging paper and bound by Gulde Druck in T?bingen. Printed in Germany.

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. Max Weber's Mysticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2. Max Weber's Charisma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3. Max Weber's Pericles: The Political Demagogue . . . . . . . . . . 47 4. Max Weber's Notion of Asceticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 5. Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Politics: Weber on Conscience, Conviction, and Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 6. Max Weber's Charismatic Prophets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7. Max Weber and "Kulturprotestantismus" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 8. Max Weber on Confucianism versus Protestantism . . . . . . . . 139 9. "Sinn der Welt": Max Weber and the Problem of Theodicy . . . . 157 10. Statistical Origins of the "Protestant Ethic" . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Index of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Index of Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Introduction

In one sense this introduction is similar to a typical one because it serves to introduce the ten previously published articles now collected in this book. In a second and larger sense, it is not similar to a typical introduction for two reasons. First, my path to the writings of Max Weber was not a typical path, and second, my approach to, and my understanding of, Weber's writings are not very typical. Accordingly, this introduction has two parts; in the first part I explain how I began to approach Weber's thinking and in the second, what prompted me to write the pieces in this collection and how I think they have fared over the years since they first appeared.

A Path to Weber

The education and training that I have is not in sociology but philosophy and my interest in sociologists is relatively speaking, rather recent. All of my degrees, including my Ph.D., are in philosophy. Beginning in the late 1960s, I studied philosophy which in the United States at the time was dominated by what is usually referred to as analytical philosophy and is divided into two types, one earlier and one later. The earlier one was based primarily on the writings of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein and emphasized that philosophy was a wrong-headed experiment which could be cleared up by making sure that language is used like mathematics and logic. The later philosophy was based on Wittgenstein, and while he later changed his mind about the degree of complexity in the use of language, he still contended that philosophical problems were mostly problems with language. If one cleared up the linguistic ambiguities and difficulties, then one would be on the way to solving problems in philosophy.

Both of these approaches to philosophy were somewhat attractive because they centered on language, but both were less than compelling because they lacked the focus of what philosophy was historically; that is, an understanding of the nature of human life, society, and of a future life. After a couple of years' interruption I returned to philosophy, but this time I studied classical

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