ABSTRACT

Unlike most forms of economic theory, Max Weber’s historical argument that some forms of religion (particularly Protestantism) have been incidentally beneficial for the development of entrepreneurialism and capitalist forms of modernity does recognise that there is a relationship between economics and cultural or religious beliefs. 2 However, beyond that recognition, it is also important to trace the broader historical roots of contemporary ideas of what it is to be modern. If the problem is looked at from this angle, it can be argued that the very idea of modernity, which is customarily understood to be based on a form of secular, scientific rationality derived from the European Enlightenment, is itself profoundly mythological. These matters are complicated, as we saw in the earlier discussion of the way in which the contemporary USA, as an intensely religious society, contradicts any presumption that modernity is necessarily secular. 3