Reconstructing the Classics
Weber, Troeltsch, and the Historical Materialists
In: Method & Theory in the Study of ReligionSearch for other papers by Warren S. Goldstein in
Current site
Google Scholar
Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch constructed their theoretical frameworks in debate with historical materialism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels provided Weber and Troeltsch with the tools of base/superstructure and class analysis that they employed in their analysis of religion. The article places Weber and Troeltsch in the historical context of the rise of the Social Democratic Party and its splintering during World War I. It compares the writing on religion by Engels, Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky with those of Weber and Troeltsch. It focuses on Ancient Judaism, the origins of Christianity, Christian heretical sects, the Reformation, the German Peasant Wars, and the Puritan Revolution. Some points in common are the origins of communism in Judaism and Christianity and the association between Protestantism and capitalism. This article shows how Weber and Troeltsch critically appropriated from historical materialism and uses this with the intent of constructing a critical sociology of religion.
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2
Kautsky cited in footnote 168, Geschichte des Sozialismus, p. 103.
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Reconstructing the Classics
Weber, Troeltsch, and the Historical Materialists
In: Method & Theory in the Study of ReligionSearch for other papers by Warren S. Goldstein in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch constructed their theoretical frameworks in debate with historical materialism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels provided Weber and Troeltsch with the tools of base/superstructure and class analysis that they employed in their analysis of religion. The article places Weber and Troeltsch in the historical context of the rise of the Social Democratic Party and its splintering during World War I. It compares the writing on religion by Engels, Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky with those of Weber and Troeltsch. It focuses on Ancient Judaism, the origins of Christianity, Christian heretical sects, the Reformation, the German Peasant Wars, and the Puritan Revolution. Some points in common are the origins of communism in Judaism and Christianity and the association between Protestantism and capitalism. This article shows how Weber and Troeltsch critically appropriated from historical materialism and uses this with the intent of constructing a critical sociology of religion.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 503 | 61 | 19 |
| Full Text Views | 260 | 3 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 6 | 0 |