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.To be sure, the religious account-books in which sins,temptations, and progress made in grace were entered or tabulated were common to boththe most enthusiastic Reformed circle and some parts of modern Catholicism (especiallyin France), above all under the influence of the Jesuits.But in Catholicism it served thepurpose of completeness of the confession, or gave the directeur de I'ame a basis for hisauthoritarian guidance of the Christian (mostly female).The Reformed Christian,however, felt his own pulse with its aid.It is mentioned by all the moralists andtheologians, while Benjamin Frank-lin's tabulated statistical book-keeping on hisprogress in the different virtues is a classic example.On the other hand, the old medieval (even ancient) idea of God's book-keeping is carriedby Bunyan to the characteristically tasteless extreme of comparing the relation of a sinnerto his God with that of customer and shopkeeper.One who has once got into debt maywell, by the product of all his virtuous acts, succeed in paying off the accumulatedinterest but never the principal.As he observed his own conduct, the later Puritan alsoobserved that of God and saw His finger in all the details of life.And, contrary to thestrict doctrine of Calvin, he always knew why God took this or that measure.The processof sanctifying life could thus almost take on the character of a business enterprise.Athoroughgoing Christianization of the whole of life was the consequence of thisGet any book for free on: www.Abika.comPROTESTANTISM AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM42methodical quality of ethical conduct into which Calvinism as distinct from Lutheranismforced men.That this rationality was decisive in its influence on practical life mustalways be borne in mind in order rightly to understand the influence of Calvinism.On theone hand we can see that it took this element to exercise such an influence at all.Butother faiths as well necessarily bad a similar influence when their ethical motives werethe same in this decisive point, the doctrine of proof.So far we have considered only Calvinism, and have thus assumed the doctrine ofpredestination as the dogmatic background of the Puritan morality in the sense ofmethodically rationalized ethical conduct.This could be done because the influence ofthat dogma in fact extended far beyond the single religious group which held in allrespects strictly to Calvinistic prin-ciples, the Presbyterians.Not only the IndependentSavoy Declaration of 1658, but also the Baptist Confession of Hanserd Knolly of 1689contained it, and it had a place within Methodism.Although John Wesley, the greatorganizing genius of the movement, was a believer in the universality of Grace, one ofthe great agitators of the first generation of Methodists and their most consistent thinker,Whitefield, was an adherent of the doctrine.The same was true of the circle around LadyHuntingdon, which for a time had considerable influence.It was this doctrine in itsmagnificent consistency which, in the fateful epoch of the seventeenth century, upheldthe belief of the militant defenders of the holy life that they were weapons in the hand ofGod, and executors of His providential Will.Moreover, it prevented a premature collapseinto a purely utilitarian doctrine of good works in this world which would never havebeen capable of motivating such tremendous sacrifices for non-rational ideal ends.The combination of faith in absolutely valid norms with absolute determinism and thecomplete trans-cendentality of God was in its way a product of great genius.At the sametime it was, in principle, very much more modern than the milder doctrine, Makinggreater concessions to the feelings which subjected God to the moral law.Above all, weshall see again and again how fundamental is the idea of proof for our problem.Since itspractical significance as a psychological basis for rational morality could be studied insuch purity in the doctrine of predestination, it was best to start there with the doctrine inits most consistent form.But it forms a recurring framework.for the connection betweenfaith and conduct in the denominations to be studied below.Within the Protestantmovement the consequences which it inevitably had for the ascetic tendencies of theconduct of its first adherents form in principle the strongest antithesis to the relativemoral helplessness of Lutheranism.The Lutheran gratia amissibilis, which could alwaysbe regained through penitent contrition evidently, in itself, contained no sanction forwhat is for us the most important result of ascetic Protestantism, a systematic rationalordering of the moral life as a whole [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]