ABSTRACT
This section distinguishes PE’s “mono-causal” presuppositions from the multi-causal framework at the foundation of his post-PE studies of the “economic ethics of the world religions” (Chapters 5 and 6).
We can now link Weber’s overarching themes: the uniqueness of the West and the multiple causes of its singularity. His Economic Ethics of the World Religions (EEWR) three-volume series represented in this regard a giant step forward. These chapters explore the EEWR volumes on China, India, and ancient Judaism. Their mode of analysis demonstrates above all Weber’s powerful reorientation away from PE’s mono-causality and idealism. He now turns toward rigorous comparative strategies and broadly multi-causal procedures.
Hence, Part II alters our focus. It first moves away from a singular orientation to PE and then shifts our attention to a sweeping theme, namely Weber’s sociology of religion. Hence, an expansion upon PE’s major query is apparent. He now concludes, in Chapters 6 and 7, that his focus upon the economic ethics of the world religions has cast a beam of light upon the ways in which Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, ancient Judaism, and ancient Christianity call forth patterned and meaningful action. Nonetheless, their rituals and “salvation pathways” fail to give rise to a set of values similar to those of the Protestant ethic. Weber’s multi-causality, as he turns away from PE and toward the EEWR studies, becomes pivotal.
