ABSTRACT
Contrary to Emile Durkheim, who attempted to analyze religion as a timeless principle of societal organization, Max Weber was interested in changing manifestations of religion in historical time, and in the explanatory quality of religion for the study of social change. The Sociology of Religion does not deal with religion as an independent system of thought but as a manifestation of human strivings. It rather concerned with religion as a specific kind of social behavior, that is, as a social fact. The phenomenon of prophecy is crucial for societal development. Charismatic leadership marks a revolutionary venture. Leaving out of consideration Islam, a warrior religion rather than a religion based on the middle classes, Judaism shares with Catholicism the emphasis on the individual's activities in fulfilling particular religious injunctions as tantamount to insuring his own chances for salvation. His theory of resentment ought to be understood as derived from unmistakably Protestant religious roots which, moreover, have been "transvaluated" in Nietzschean fashion.
