ABSTRACT
Max Weber was influenced by a large group of noteworthy theologians and historians, among them the theologian Otto Baumgarten and his father Hermann, a well-known historian, and American theologian William Emery Charming. In Weber's opinion, the Marxist analysis of capitalism was too deterministic. Weber, on the other hand, was convinced that ideas developed within religious tradition could influence behavior. Calvinism offered an ideological basis for capitalist development. The main point analyzed by Weber was, the influence of certain religious ideas on the development of an economic spirit, or the ethos of an economic system. In order to prevent an overly determinist reading of the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism, Weber was, however, eager to delimit the scope of his interpretation. Heidelberg wanted to underline the claim that the specific relation between capitalism and Protestantism occurred under particular conditions, specifically where there were clear religious conditions favorable to the expansion of capitalism.
