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Divergences et convergences entre Max Weber et Ernst Troeltsch dans l’approche du protestantisme

Peter-Ulrich Merz-Benz
p. 57-77

Abstracts

One of the most popular and altogether most important explanations for the genesis of the modern world with its capitalist order is Max Weber’s study on protestantism. But there is another, almost unknown explanation that Weber’s friend and colleague, Ernst Troeltsch, published only a few years after Weber’s. According to Troeltsch, protestantism is responsible for the development of individualism as a significant feature of modern culture. But in Troeltsch’s view protestantism has been part of global history from its very beginning. That is why he attributed universal significance to this religion. Weber, in contrast, understood protestantism, and its influence on the human conduct of life, as a single phenomenon which gains its importance for the modern world from capitalism. Given this contrast, it is especially interesting to see that both Weber and Troeltsch used Heinrich Rickert’s philosophy of history to develop their positions. Their theories on protestantism, therefore, can be reconstructed as variations of Rickert’s philosophy, trying to grasp the causal connection between Protestantism and the modern world.

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References

Bibliographical reference

Peter-Ulrich Merz-Benz, « Divergences et convergences entre Max Weber et Ernst Troeltsch dans l’approche du protestantisme », Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 127 | 2004, 57-77.

Electronic reference

Peter-Ulrich Merz-Benz, « Divergences et convergences entre Max Weber et Ernst Troeltsch dans l’approche du protestantisme », Archives de sciences sociales des religions [Online], 127 | juillet - septembre 2004, Online since 25 June 2007, connection on 28 March 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/assr/1051 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.1051

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About the author

Peter-Ulrich Merz-Benz

Université de Zurich – Suisse

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Copyright

The text only may be used under licence © Archives de sciences sociales des religions. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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