The Spirit of Capitalism, Traditionalism, and Religiousness: A Re-Examination of Weber's Concepts

M. Weber's well-known theory emphasizes the role of religious motivation in econ behavior & postulates that Protestants are likely to manifest the spirit of capitalism, while Catholics manifest traditionalism. On such a basis one may assume that the spirit of capitalism &/or traditionalism is r'ed with degree of religiousness in such a way, that more religious Catholics would be more likely to manifest traditionalism than less religious ones. The present paper attempts to test this hypothesis by using the Le Moyne Religion Test as an index of religiousness, & 4 scales of aspiration as indices of the spirit of capitalism or traditionalism. Assuming that in our secularized society econ behavior may have religious as well as secular motivation, the article distinguishes between the religious & secular spirit of capitalism, as well as religious & secular traditionalism. Using a sample of M Catholic Coll students (N=363), it concludes that within this group (1) religiousness is not r'ed with levels of aspiration or traditionalism; (2) the norms of secular subcultures, rather than religiousness itself, appear as factors affecting att's toward work; (3) each of the 4 attitude types appears as the modal attitude of a secular subculture represented in the sample: the religious spirit of capitalism characterizing the LMc; the secular spirit of capitalism, the Italian ethnic group; religious traditionalism, the Irish ethnic group; & secular traditionalism, the We. J. Kosa.