1 - The German Theological Sources and Protestant Church Politics

Summary

In the dispute surrounding The Protestant Ethic in 1907, Max Weber explained that an “objective, fruitful critique” of his investigation of the genetic connection between Protestant asceticism and the spirit of capitalism “is only possible - in this field of endlessly intertwined causal relations - through a mastery of the source material.” “Although it may seem to some as an outdated attitude, I expect a critique from the theological sphere to be the most competent.” In later years, Weber repeatedly emphasized that for him the most important participants in the debate over The Protestant Ethic were the “experts” in religious matters, the theologians. From them alone he expected a “fruitful and instructive critique.”

How can we explain Weber's obvious esteem for academic theology? There is, first of all, a biographical reason. From the beginning of his university studies, Max Weber cultivated strong contacts with Protestant theologians. He spent his first semester in a close living and working relationship with his cousin Otto Baumgarten, a Protestant theologian, who was six years older than Weber. From 1894 on, Baumgarten taught as a professor of practical theology in Kiel, maintaining a very close relationship with his cousin in Heidelberg and also with Marianne Weber. Through his connection with Baumgarten, Weber met numerous religious liberals and Protestant theologians who were critical of the church, and after 1890, together with his “favorite cousin,” he was involved with the Protestant Social Congress. His work with the Protestant Social Congress intensified his involvement with liberal Protestantism. When Weber moved from Freiburg to Heidelberg in 1896, a theologian in the circle of young Heidelberg professors, Ernst Troeltsch, became his closest friend. Moreover, Weber established contact with other professors in the faculty of Protestant theology at the University of Heidelberg: in particular, the Old Testament scholar Adalbert Merx and the New Testament scholar Adolf Deissmann.