CALVANISM & THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC (by Barbara Goodrich, Ph.D.)

Calvinism (I'm summarizing pretty drastically here, to keep it short):

According to Calvin, each human is steeped in the "original sin" inherited from Adam and Eve. Humanity is horribly corrupt, and powerless besides. The standard line of most versions of Christianity is that by grace the loving God redeems humans from this original sin. (Some versions of Christianity hold that God redeems all humans. Some versions hold that humans themselves instigate their own redemption by their faith in God, etc..) Calvin, however, was unusual in that he regarded humans as so disgusting that he thought there was an unbridgeable chasm between God and us, and that we were too unworthy to have any influence on God's decisions at all. In other words, nothing one could do would make any difference whatsoever regarding whether God chose to redeem one or not from one’s hideous “original sin” and impending damnation. (Calvin and his fellow puritan sorts seem to have regarded God as a pretty capricious, arbitrary sort of tyrant.) Further, at least in principle, Calvin believed that one can't determine who is chosen ("elect") by God to be redeemed, and who isn't. (The word “elect” may have connotations of choice to us, when we think of voting in elections. But here the choice is thought to be God’s entirely. Calvin thought that God chooses (or doesn't choose) us; we can’t choose him.)

It's not emotionally easy to believe such a discouraging doctrine as predestination, a doctrine that one is utterly powerless over, and ignorant of, one's destiny. Weber writes that Calvinist ministers had to adapt their "pastoral advice" into the following:

On the one hand it is held to be an absolute duty to consider oneself chosen, and to combat all doubts as temptations of the devil, since lack of self-confidence is the result of insufficient faith, hence of imperfect grace. The exhortation of the apostle to make fast one's own call is here interpreted as a duty to attain certainty of one's own election and justification in the daily struggles of life. … On the other hand, in order to attain that self-confidence intense worldly activity is recommended as the most suitable means. (Ibid., pp. 111-112)

Calvin held that one's good works can't influence whether one is chosen by God to be "saved" or not. However, in practice, Calvinism does require a life of systematic and unemotional good works (interpreted here as hard work in business) and self-control, as a sign that one is of God's chosen "elect." Thus, ascetic dedication to one's perceived duties is "the means, not of purchasing salvation, but of getting rid of the fear of damnation." (Ibid., p. 115) One must prove one's faith by one's worldly (i.e. economic) activity and ascetic self-control.

By founding its ethic in the doctrine of predestination, [Calvinism] substituted for the [older Roman Catholic] spiritual aristocracy [or "elite"] of monks outside of and above the world the spiritual aristocracy of the predestined saints of God within the world. It was an aristocracy which… was divided from the eternally damned remainder of humanity by [an]… impassable and … terrifying gulf …. This consciousness of divine grace of the elect and holy was accompanied by an attitude toward the sin of one's neighbor, not of sympathetic understanding based on consciousness of one's own weakness, but of hatred and contempt for him as an enemy of God bearing the signs of eternal damnation. (Ibid., pp. 121-122)

Now, it's rather natural, if one is a Calvinist, to be constantly looking for any little indications that God does approve of oneself, that God has predestined one to be redeemed, that one is "of the elect" of God. And how might God give any promising little hints? Well, material success is one way. If one has a successful business, God seems to be smiling on one! And as for those poor destitute farmers who just lost everything they owned due to a drought, well, God is all-powerful, and must have decided that they should suffer. And who are we miserable sinners to disagree, and thwart the plans of God?

Thus, the Calvinist develops a European version of India's infamous caste system. In ancient India, foreign conquerors solidified their conquest by imposing a religion on the populace. According to this religion, there were set classes or castes of people, and anyone born into the poor castes must have done something in a previous life to deserve such punishment. Similarly, the Calvinist attributes prosperity and poverty to the mysterious workings of God. (Notice that in both cases these beliefs serve to legitimize whatever the status quo power is. The wealthy and powerful, whether in ancient India or in post-Renaissance Switzerland or 18th century Scotland, are presented as justifiably wealthy. And the poor or "untouchable" are dismissed as unworthy of any better treatment. These are classic examples of ideology.)

Dickens captured exactly this peculiar combination of self-punishment, self-righteousness, and misanthropy in his character Scrooge. Scrooge isn't a simple hoarder. Scrooge's avarice is a result of his secularized "Calvinist work ethic."