ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what is and has been involved in the religious use of asceticism. It moves from all possible religions with ascetic elements to a consideration only of Christianity and its asceticism. Max Weber's main concern is with economic life, which he equates with capitalism. The Calvinists, according to Weber, were the main carriers of the pure spirit of ascetic Protestantism. The core of their doctrine was predestination, with all of its bracing psychological ramifications. Methodism, which in many ways was the Anglo-American counterpart to Continental Pietism, added to the latter's emphasis on feeling a methodical means of inducing the emotional act of conversion. Weber and Sigmund Freud share two overriding convictions. The first is that mankind has been progressing from superstition and magic belief to rational thought and action. The second conviction held in common is a belief in "spirit", that is, man's mental attributes, as absolutely central in man's historical development.
