ABSTRACT
The ghost of Max Weber looms large over any attempt to think about religion and capitalism, especially his suggestion that Calvinism’s unique attitude toward the world helped catalyze industrial capitalism in the West. Once that change had occurred, according to Weber, capitalism no longer needed religion, because the system itself formed an ‘iron cage’ that shaped our lives. That is why he happily illustrated the ‘Protestant ethic’ with quotations from the quite irreligious Benjamin Franklin (Weber 1958: 48-54).
