ABSTRACT
The early writings of Max Weber have been receiving increasing attention in recent scholarship. Interest has mainly been directed towards the possibility of demonstrating lines of continuity, even at this early stage, between the general body of his theoretical work and his political concerns. 1 Attention focuses primarily on Weber's theoretical and political assessment of the advance of agrarian capitalism in the German East, where the dismantling of existing patriarchal structures had, he argued, increasingly undermined the national interests of the German Reich. 2 In this context, Weber's hitherto largely unresearched participation in the Evangelical-Social movement during the Wilhelmine period assumes a particular significance. What were the motives for his involvement in the Evangelical-Social Congress (ESC)? Did he seriously envisage the possibility of exerting a moral or religious influence upon existing relations of social organization or authority, 3 or were the reasons underlying his action of a different order? In what follows, we shall attempt to draw out Weber's central concerns as they emerge from his exchanges with various groups and individuals within the Evangelical-Social Congress.
