CHAPTER IV

THE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS OF WORLDLY ASCETICISM
In history there have been four principal fornas_of ascetic Protestantism (in the sense of word here used) : (i) Calvinism in the form which it assumed in the • main area of its influence in Western Europe, especially in the seventeenth century ; (2) Pietism ; (3) Methodism ; (4) the sects growing out of the Baptist movement.^ None of these movements was completely separated from the others, and even the distinction from the non-ascetic Churches of the Reformation is never perfectly clear. Methodism. which_first arnsp in the middle of the eightfifirillLceiituiY within the Established
Church of England, was not^in the minds of its founders, intended to form a new^^Hnlr^^^JÜLÖnly a new^waRening of the ascetic .spirit v^itWn_jhe^jold^_ OnTy in tEe"coiirse oHts .develQpm£iit,..£Sfi£dallyJn its extension to Americav.didiLJbecome separate from the
Anglican Church.
Pietism first split off from the Calvinistic movement in England, and especially in Holland. It remained loosely connected with orthodoxy, shading off from it by imperceptible gradations, until at the end of the seventeenth century it was absorbed into Lutheranism under Spener's leadership. Though the dogmatic adjustment was not entirely satisfactory, it remained a movement within the Lutheran Church. Only the faction dominated by Zinzendorf, and affected by lingering Hussite and Calvinistic influences within the
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Moravian brotherhood, was forced, like Methodism against its will, to form a peculiar sort of sect. Calvinism and Baptism were at the beginning of thek develop- ment~^Karply opposed to each other. .But in the Baptism "tJf'fhe litter part of the seventeenth century they were in close contact. And even in the Independent sects of England and Holland at the beginning of the seven- teenth century the transition w^s not abrupt. As Pietism shows, the transition to Lutheranism is also gradual, and the same is true of Calvinism and the Anglican Church, though both in external character and in the spirit of its most logical adherents the latter is more closely related to Catholicism. It is true that both the mass of the adherents and especially the staunchest champions ofthat ascetic movement which, in the broadest sense of a highly ambiguous word, has been called Puritanism,^ did attack the foundations of Anglicanism; but even here the differences were only gradually worked out in the course of the struggle. Even if for the present we quite ignore the questions of government and organization which do not interest us here, the facts are just the same. The dogmatic differences, even the most important, such as those over the doctrines of predestination and justification, were combined in the most complex ways, and even at the beginning of the seventeenth century regularly, though not without exception, prevented the maintenance of unity in the Church. Above all, the types of moral conduct in which we are interested may be found in a similar manner among the adherents of the most various denominations, derived from any one of the four sources mentioned above, or a combination of several
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of them. We shall see that similar ethical maxims may be correlated with very different dogmatic foundations . Also the important literary tools for the saving of souls, above all the casuistic compendia of the various denominations, influenced each other in the course of time ; one finds great similarities in them, in spite of very great differences in actual conduct.
It would almost seem as though we had best com- pletely ignore both the dogmatic foundations and the ethical theory and confine our attention to the moral practice so far as it can be determined. That, however, is not true. The various different dogmatic roots of ascetic morality did no doubt die out after terrible struggles. But the original connection with those dogmas has left behind important traces in the later undogmatic ethics ; moreover, only the knowledge of the original body of ideas can help us to understand the connection of that morality with the idea of the after- life which absolutely dominated the most spiritual men of that time. Without its power, overshadowing everything else, no moral awakening which seriously influenced practical life came into being in that period.
We are naturally not concerned with the question of what was theoretically and officially taught in the ethical compendia of the time, however much practical significance this may have had through the influence of Church discipline, pastoral work, and preaching.^
^e are interested rather in something entirely different^ jhe influence of those psychological sanctions which, originating in religious belief and the practice of re- ligion, gave a direction to practical conduct and held 3ie individual to it. Now these sanctions were to a larg^
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extent derived from the peculiarities of the rehgious ideas behind them. The men of that day were occupied with abstract dogmas to an extent which itself can only be understood when we perceive the connection of these dogmas with practical religious interests. A few observations on dogma, ^ which will seem to the non- theological reader as dull as they will hasty and super- ficial to the theologian, are indispensable. We can of Icourse only proceed by presenting these religious [ideas in the artificial simplicity of ideal types, as they [I could at best but seldom be found in history. For just because of the impossibility of drawing sharp boun- daries in historical reality we can only hope to under- stand their specific importance from an investigation of them in their most consistent and logical forms.
A. Calvinism
Now Calvinism^ was the faith ^ over which the i great political and cultural struggles of the sixteenth I and seventeenth centuries were fought in the most - highly developed countries, the Netherlands, England, and France. To it we shall hence turn first. At that time, and in general even to-day, the doctrine of predestination was considered its most characteristic dogma. It is true that there has been controversy as to whether it is the most essential dogma of the Reformed Church or only an appendage. Judgments of the im- portance of a historical phenomenon may be judgments of value or faith, namely, when they refer to what is alone interesting, or alone in the long run valuable in it. Or, on the other hand, they may refer to its
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influence on ether historical processes as a causal factor. Then we are concerned with judgments of historical imputation. If now we start, as we must do here, from the latter standpoint and inquire into the significance which is to be attributed to that dogma by virtue of its cultural and historical con- sequences, it must certainly be rated very highly.' The movement which Oldenbarneveld led was shattered by it. The schism in the English Church became irrevocable under James I after the Crown and the Puritans came to differ dogmatically over just this doctrine. Again and again it was looked upon as the real element of political danger in Calvinism and attacked as such by those in authority.^ The great synods of the seventeenth century, above all those of Dordrecht and Westminster, besides numerous smaller ones, made its elevation to canonical authority the central purpose of their work. It served as a rallying- point to countless heroes of the Church militant, and in both the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries it caused schisms in the Church and formed the battle- cry of great new awakenings. We cannot pass it by, and since to-day it can no longer be assumed as known to all educated men, we can best learn its content from the authoritative words of the Westminster Confession of 1647, which in this regard is simply repeated by both Independent and Baptist creeds.
"Chapter IX (of Free Will), No. 3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. So that a natural man, being altogether averse from that Good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own
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strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself
thereunto.
' "Chapter III (of God's Eternal Decree), No. 3.
By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His
I glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto ever-
VJasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.
**No. 5. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto
life, God before the foundation of the world was laid,
according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and
the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath
chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of His mere
free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or
good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any
other thing in the creature as conditions, or causes
moving Him thereunto, and all to the praise of His
glorious grace.
''No. 7. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth, or with-holdeth mercy, as He pleaseth, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of His glorious justice.
' "Chapter X (of Effectual Calling), No. i. All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only. He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time effec- tually to call, by His word and spirit (out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature) . . . taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good. . . i 100
The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
' ' Chapter V (of Providence) , No . 6 . As for those wicked and ungodly men, whom God as a righteous judge, for former sins doth blind and harden, from them He not only with-holdeth His grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings and wrought upon in their hearts, but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which they had and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin : and withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the tempta- tions of the world, and the power of Satan: whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means, which God useth for the softening of others."»
"Though_l_niay^ be sent to Hell for it, such 4 God all never command my respect", was Milton's well-
lown opinion of the doctrine. ^^ But we are here concerned not with the evaluation, but the historical significance of the dogma. We can only JbrieflV-sketch the question of how the do^rine originated and how it ^fitted into the framework of Calvinist ic theology.
Two paths leading to it were possible. The pheno- menonof the religious sense jof grace is combined^^Jn. the mostactiye and passionate of those great worship- ^ers_which Christianity has produced again and jgain since Augustine, with the feeling of certainty that that grace is the sole product of an objective power, and not in the least to be^ttributed to personal worthTThe powerful feeling of light-hearted assurance, in which the tremendous pressure of their sense of sin is released, apparently breaks over them with elemental force and destroys every possibility of the belief that this over- powering gift of grace could owe anything to their own
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/co-operation or could be connected with achievements /or quahties of their own faith and will. At the time of I Luther's greatest religious creativeness, when he was / capable of writing his Freiheit eines Christenmenschen, I God's secret decree was also to him most definitely I the sole and ultimate source of his state of religious V-grace.^^ Even later he did not formally abandon it. But not only did the idea not assume a central position for him, but it receded more and more into the back- ground, the more his position as responsible head of his Church forced him into practical politics. Melancthon quite deliberately avoided adopting the dark and dangerous teaching in the Augsburg Confession, and for the Church fathers of Lutheranism it was an article of faith that grace was revocable (amissibilis) , and could be won again by penitent humility and faithful trust in the word of God and in the sacraments. f With Calvin the process was just the opposite; the ' significance of the doctrine for him increased,^- per- ceptibly in the course of his polemical controversies with theological opponents. It is not fully developed until the third edition of his Institutes, and only gained ""its position of central prominence after his death in the great struggles which the Synods of Dordrecht and Westminster sought to put an end to. With Calvin the decretum horribile is derived not, as with Luther, from religious experience, but from the logical necessity of his thought; therefore its importance increases with every increase in the logical consistency of that religious Ir thought. The interest of it is solely in God, not in man ; God does not exist for men, but men for the sake of
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\God.^^i/All creation, including of course the fact, as irUhdoubtedly was for Calvin, that only a small pro-i portion of men are chosen for eternal grace, can have i/ any meaning only as means to the glory and majesty; 3f God. To apply earthly standards of justice to His, sovereign decrees is meaningless and an insult to His Majesty,^* since He and He alone is free, i.e. is subject to no law. His decrees can only be understood by or even known to us in so far as it has been His pleasure to reveal them. We can only hold to these fragments of eternal truth. Everything else, including the meaning of our individual destiny, is hidden in dark mystery which it would be both impossible to pierce and pre- sumptuous to question.
For the damned to complain of their lot would be., much the same as for animals to bemoan the fact they were not born as men. For everything of the flesh i^ separated from God by an unbridgeable gulf and deserves of Him only eternal death, in so far as He has not decreed otherwise for the glorification of His Majesty jjWe know only that a part of humanity is saved, the rest damned. To assume that human merit or guilt play a part in determining this destiny would be to think of God's absolutely free decrees, which have been settled from eternity, as subject to change by human influence, an impossible contradiction. The Father in heaven of the New Testament, so human and under- standing, who rejoices over the repentance of a sinner as a woman over the lost piece of silver she has found, is gone. His place has been taken by a transcendental being, beyond the reach of human understanding, who with His quite incomprehensible decrees has decided
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'1 the fate of every individual and regulated the tiniest .^^
details of the cosmos from eternity .^^ God's grace is, "^ -since His decrees cannot change, as impossible for those ^1 to whom He has granted it to lose as it is unattainable , ri for those to whom He has denied it. ^
In its extreme inhumanity this doctrine must above all have had one consequence for the life of a generation which surrendered to its magnificent consistency. That was a feeling of unprecedented inner loneliness of the single individual. ^^ In what was for the man of the age of the Reformation the most important thing in life, his eternal salvation, he was forced to follow his path alone to meet a destiny which had been decreed for him from eternity. No one could help him. No priest, for the chosen one can understand the word of God only in his own heart. No sacraments, for though the sacra- ments had been ordained by God for the increase of His glory, and must hence be scrupulously observed, they are not a means to the attainment of grace, but only the subjective externa subsidia of faith. No Church, for though it was held that extra ecclesiam nulla salus in the sense that whoever kept away from the true Church could never belong to God's chosen band,^'^ nevertheless the membership of the external Church included the doomed. They should belong to it and be subjected to its discipline, not in order thus to attain salvation, that is impossible, but because, for the glory of God, they too must be forced to obey His commandments. Finally, even no God. For even Christ had died only for the elect ,^^ for whose benefit God had decreed His martyrdom from eternity. This, the complete elimination of salvation through the 104
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Church and the sacraments (which was in Lutheranism by~ no" means developed to its final conclusions), was what formed the absolutely decisive difference from \\ Catholicism.
That great historic process in the development of religions, the elimination of magic from the world^^ which had begun with the old Hebrew prophets and, in conjunction with Hellenistic scientific thought, had repudiated all magical means to salvation as superstition and sin, came here to its logical conclusion. The genuine Puritan even rejected all signs of religious ceremony at the grave and buried his nearest and dearest without song or ritual in order that no superstition, no trust in the effects of magical and sacramental forces on salvation, should creep in.^^
There was not only no magical means of attaining the grace of God for those to whom God had decided to deny it, but no means whatever. Combined with the harsh doctrines of the absolute transcendentality of God and the corruption of everything pertaining to the flesh, this inner isolation of th^Jndividual contains, on the one hand, the reason for [the entirely negative attitude^ of Puritanism,. tQ_, all the sensuous and emotional» elements in culture and in religion, because they are of no use toward salvation and promote sentimental illusions and idolatrous superstitions. (Thus it provides a basis for a fundamental antagonism to sensuous culture of all kinds. ^^ On the other hand, it forms one of the roots of that disillusioned and pessimistically inclined individualism^^ which can even to-day be identiHed^ih'the national characters and the institutions of the peoples with a Puritan past, in such a striking
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contrast to the quite different spectacles through which the EnHghtenment later looked upon men.^^ We can clearly identify the traces of the influence of the doctrine of predestination in the elementary forms of conduct and attitude toward life in the era with which we are concerned, even where its authority as a dogma was on the decline. It was in fact only the most extreme form of that exclusive trust in God in which we are here interested. It comes out for instance in the strikingly frequent repetition, especially in the English Puritan literature, of warnings against any trust in the aid of friendship of men .2'* Even the amiable Baxter counsels deep distrust of even one's closest friend, and Bailey directly exhorts to trust no one and to say nothing compromising to anyone. Only God should be your confidant .^^ In striking con- trast to Lutheranism, this attitude toward life was also connected with the quiet disappearance of the private confession, of which Calvin was suspicious only on account of its possible sacramental misinterpreta- tion, from all the regions of fully developed Calvinism. That was an occurrence of the greatest importance. In the first place it is a symptom of the type of influence this religion exercised. Further, however, it was a psychological stimulus to the development of their ethical attitude. The means to a periodical discharge of the emotional sense of sin ^^ was done away with.
Of the consequences for the ethical conduct of everyday life we speak later. But for the general religious situation of a man the consequences are evident. In spite of the necessity of membership in the true Church ^'^ for salvation, the Calvinist's intercourse 1 06
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The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
with his God was carried on in deep spiritual isolation. To see the specific results ^^ of this peculiar atmosphere, it is only necessary to read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,^^ by far the most widely read book of the whole Puritan literature. In the description of Christian's attitude after he had realized that he was living in thft City of Destruc- tion and he had received the call to take .up his pilgrim- age to the celestial city, wife and childreh cling to him, but stopping his ears with his fingers and crying, "life, eternal life", he staggers forth across the fields. No refinement could surpass the naive feeling of the tinker who, writing in his prison cell, earned the applause of a believing world, in expressing the emotions of the faithful Puritan, thinking only of his own salvation. It is expressed in the unctuous conversations which he holds with fellow-seekers on the way, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Gottfried Keller's Gerechte Kammacher. Only when he himself is safe does it occur to him that it would be nice to have his family with him. It is the same anxious fear of death and the beyond which we feel so vividly in Alfonso of Liguori, as Döllinger has described him to us. It is worlds removed from that spirit of proud worldliness which Machiavelli expresses in relating the fame of those Florentine citizens who, in their struggle against the Pope and his excommunication, had held "Love of their native city higher than the fear for the salvation of their souls". And it is of course even farther from the feelings which Richard Wagner puts into the mouth of Siegmund before his fatal combat, "Grüsse mir Wotan, grüsse mir Wallhall — Doch von Wallhall's spröden Wonnen sprich du wahrlich mir nicht". But
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the effects of this fear on Bunyan and Liguori are characteristically different. The same fear which drives the latter to every conceivable self-humiliation spurs the former on to a restless and systematic struggle with life. Whence comes this difference? / It seems at ßrst a mystery how the undoubted / superiority of Calvinism in social organization can be / connected witn this tendency to tear the individual I away from the closed ties with which he is bound to \this world. ^^. But, however strange it may seem, it Ifollows fron\ the peculiar form which the Christian brotherly love was forced to take under the pressure of the inner isolation of the individual through the Calvinistic faith. In the first place it follows dogmatic- ally.^^ The world exists to serve the glorification of God and for chat purpose alone. The elected Christian is in the world o^Jy to increase this glory of God by fulfilling His commandments to the best of his ability. But God requires social achievement of the Christian because j He wills that social life shall be organized according to I His commandments, in accordance with that purpose. The social ^2 activity of the Christian in the world is solely activity in majorem gloriam Dei. This character is hence shared by labour in a calling which serves the mundane life of the community. Even in Luther we found specialized labour in callings justified in terms of brotherly love. But what for him remained an un- certain, purely intellectual suggestion became for the Calvinists a characteristic element in their ethical system. Brotherly love, since it may only be practised for the glory of God^^ and not in the service of the flesh, ^^ is expressed in the first place in the fulfilment io8
The Religious Fowtdatiom of Worldly Asceticism
of the daily tasks given by the lex naturce\ and in the process this fulfilment assumes a peculiarly objective and impersonal character, that_of service in thejnterest _
^ of the rational organization of our social environmej:^' For the wonderfully purposeful organizatior.-^ and arrangement of this cosmos is, according botj-'i to the revelation of the Bible and to natural intuitior^» evidently designed by God to serve the utility of the V"^^'^ race.
- This makes labour in the service of imperso/?al social
I usefulness appear to promote the glory of hence to be willed by Him. The complete elimifiation of the theodicy problem and of all those questions about the meaning of the world and of life, which have tof*^ tured others, was as self-evident to the Puritan as, for quite diflferent reasons, to the Jew, and even in a certain sense to all the non-mystical types of Christian religion. ^To this-£CQnomy of forces Calvinism added another tendency which worked in the same direction. The conflict betw€€ft-^he Jftdi^ddual and the ethic (in Sören Kierkegaard's sense) didJiot^exist fqr^jyinisjn, although it placed the individual entirely on his own responsibility in religious matters. This is not the place to analyse the reasons for this fact, or its signifi- cance for the political and economic rationalism of Calvinism. The source of the utilitarian character of fcalvinistic ethics lies here, and important peculiarities [of the Calvinistic idea of the calling were derived from ; the same source as well.^^ But for the moment we must 1 return to the special consideration of the doctrine of Wedestination.
f For us the decisive problem is : How was this doctrine borne^^ in an age to which the after-life was not only
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more important, but in many ways also more certain, [than all the interests of life in this world ?^^ The question, Am I one of the elect? must sooner or later ha«.ve arisen for every believer and have forced all other interc^^ßts into the background. And how j:an I be sure of this :?^tate of grace P^^ For Calvin himself this was not a proLS>|em. He felt himself to be a chosen agent of the Lord, " -id was certain of his own salvation. Accord- ingly, t^)', the question of how the individual can be certain :of his own election, he has at bottom only the answe'r that we should be content with the knowledge that '^Jod has chosen and depend further only on that 'implicit trust in Christ which is the result of true faith. He rejects in principle the assumption that one can learn from the conduct of others whether they are chosen or damned. It is an unjustifiable attempt to ;force God's secrets. Tlie._elect differ externally in this^iife in no way from the damned^® ; and even all the subjective experiences of the chosen are, as liidihria Spiritus sancti, possible for the damned Y^ith. the_single_exception of^hat finaliter expectant, trusting faith. The elecTlKus are and remain God's invisible Church.
Quite naturally this attitude was impossible for his followers as early as Beza, and, above all, for the broad mass of ordinary men. For them the certitudo salutis in the sense of the recognizability of the state of grace necessarily became of absolutely dominant impor- tance.*^ So, wherever the doctrine of predestination was held, the question could not be suppressed whether there were any infallible criteria by which membership in the electi could be known. Not only has this question no
The Religious Foundations of' Worldly Asceticism
continually had a central importance in the develop- ment of the Pietism which first arose on the basis of the Reformed Church ; it has in fact in a certain sense at times been fundamental to it. But when we con- sider the great political and social importance of the Reformed doctrine and practice of the Communion, we shall see how great a part was played during the whole seventeenth century outside of Pietism by the possibility of ascertaining the state of grace of~ the individual. On it depended, for instance, his admission to Communion, i.e. to the central religious ceremony which determined the social standing of the participants.
It was impossible, at least so far as the question of a man's own state of grace arose, to be satisfied ^^ with Calvin's trust in the testimony of the expectant faith resulting from grace, even though the orthodox doctrine had never formally abandoned that criterion. '^^ Above all, practical pastoral work, which had immediately to deal with afl the suffering caused by the doctrine, could not be satisfied. It met these difficulties in various ways.*^ So far as predestination was not reinterpreted, toned down, or fundamentally abandoned,** two prin- cipal, mutually connected, types of pastoral advice appear. On the one hand it is held to be an absolute j/ duty to consider oneself chosen, and to combat all doubts as temptations of the devil, *^ since lack of self- confidence is the result of insufficient faith, hence of imperfect grace. The exhortation of the apostle to make fast one's own call is here interpreted as a duty to attain certainty of one's own election and justifica- tion in the daily struggle of life. In the place of the
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humble sinners to whom Luther promises grace if they trust themselves to God in penitent faith are bred those self-confident saints ^^ whom we can rediscover in the hard Puritan merchants of the heroic age of capitalism and in isolated instances down to the present. On the other hand, in j^ldei^o attain that self-con- fidence intense worldly^activity is recommended as tue most suitable means. ^^ It and it alone dispersesTeligious I doubts and gives the certainty of grace.
That worldly activity should be considered capable of this achievement, that it could, so to speak, be considered the most suitable means of counteracting feelings of religious anxiety, finds its explanation m the fundamental peculiarities of religious feeling in the Reformed Church, which come most clearly to light in its differences from Lutheranism in the doctrine of justification by faith. These differences are analysed so subtly and with such objectivity and avoidance of value- judgments in Schneckenburger's excellent lectures, ^^ that the following brief observations can for the most part simply rest upon his discussion. ^ The highest religious experience which the Lutheran faith strives to attain, especially as it developed in the course of the seventeenth century, is the unio mystica \with the deity. ^^ As the name itself, which is unknown to the Reformed faith in this form, suggests, it is a feeling of actual absorption in the deity, that of a real entrance of the divine into the soul of the believer. It is qualitatively similar to the aim of the contemplation of the German mystics and is characterized by its passive search for the fulfilment of the yearning' for rest in God.
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Now the history of philosophy shows that rehgious behef which is primarily mystical may very well be compatible with a pronounced sense of reality in the field of empirical fact ; it may even support it directly i on account of the repudiation of dialectic doctrines. Furthermore, mysticism may indirectly even further the interests of rational conduct. Nevertheless, the positive valuation of external activity is lacking in its relation to the world. In addition to this, Lutheranism combines the unio mystica with that deep feeling of sin-stained unworthiness which is essential to preserve the poenitentia qiiotidiana of the faithful Lutheran, thereby maintaining the humility and simplicity in- dispensable for the forgiveness of sins. The typical religion of the Reformed Church, on the other hand, has from the beginning repudiated both this purely inward emotional piety of Lutheranism and the Quietist escape from everything of Pascal. A real'pene- tration of the human soul by the divine was made impossible by the absolute transcendentality of God compared to the flesh : finitum non est capax infiniti. The community of the elect with their God could only take place and be perceptible to them in that God ^ worked (operatur) through them and that they were u/ conscious of it. That is, their action originated from the faith caused by God's grace, and this faith in turn justified itself by the quality of that action. Deep-lying differences of the most important conditions of salva- tion^o which apply to the classification of all practical religious activity appear here. The religious believer,' can make himself sur^ of his state of grace either in that he feels himself to be the vessel of the Holy Spirit
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or the tool of the divine will. In the former case his religious life tends to mysticism and emotionalism, in the latter to ascetic action; Luther stood close to the former type, Calvinism belonged definitely to the latter. The Calvinist also wanted to be saved sola fide, ^nt since Calvin viewed all pure feelings and emotions, no matter how exalted they might seem to be, with suspicion ,^1 faith had to be proved by its objective results in order to provide a firm foundation for the certitudo salutis. It must be a fides efficax,^^ the call to salvation an effectual calling (expression used in Savoy Declaration).
If we now ask further, by what fruits the Calvinist /thought himself able to identify true faith? the answer [is: by a type of Christian conduct which served to j increase the glory of God . Just what does so serve is to be seen in his own will as revealed either directly through the Bible or indirectly through the purposeful order of the world which he has created {lex natura). ^^ Especially by comparing the condition of one's own soul with that of the elect, for instance the patriarchs, according to the Bible, could the state of one's own grace be known .^* Only one of the elect really has the fides efficaXy^^ only he is able by virtue of his rebirth (regeneratio) and the resulting sanctification {sanctifi- catio) of his whole life, to augment the glory of God by real, and not merely apparent, good works. It was through the consciousness that his conduct, at least in its fundamental character and constant ideal (propositum oboedientice) y rested on a power ^^ within himself working for the glory of God ; that it is not only willed of God but rather done by God'^^ that he attained the 114
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highest good towards which this reHgion strove, the certainty of salvation.^® That it was attainable was proved by 2 Cor. xiii. 5.^® Thus, however useless goo^ works might be as a means of attaining salvation, for even the elect remain beings of the flesh, and everything they do falls infinitely short of divine standards, nevertheless, they are indispensable as a sign of elec- tion.^^ They are the technical means, not of purchasing , salvation, but of getting rid of the fear of damnationj In this sense they are occasionally referred to as directly necessary for salvation^^ or the possessio salutis is made conditional on them.^^
Injpra^ice this means that God helps those who help themselves .^^ Thus the Calvinist, as it is some- times put, himself creates®* his own salvation, or, as Nvould be more correct, the conviction of it. But this creation cannot, as in Catholicism, consist in a gradual accumulation of individual good works to one's credit, but rather in a systematic self-control which at every moment stands before the inexorable alternative, chosen or damned. This brings us to a very important point in our investigation.
It is common knowledge that Lutherans have again and again accused this line of thought, which was worked out in the Reformed Churches and sects with increasing clarity,®^ of reversion to the doctrine of salvation by works.®® And however justified the. protest of the accused against identification of their dogmatic position with the Catholic doctrine, this accusation has surely been made with reason if by it is meant the practical consequences for the everyday life of the average Christian of the Reformed Church.®^ For a
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more intensive form of the religious valuation of moral action than that to which Calvinism led its adherents has perhaps never existed. But what is important for the practical significance of this sort of salvation by works must be sought in a knowledge of the particular qualities which characterized their type of ethical con- duct and distinguished it from the everyday life of an average Christian of the Middle Ages. The difference , .Pf may well be formulated as follows : the normal mediaeval v/ Catholic layman^® lived ethically, so to speak, from ^ pJjiand to mouth. In the first place he conscientiously ^ ^ ^fulfilled his traditional duties. But beyond that mini- '/U^mum his good works did not necessarily form a con- ^'m^nected, or at least not a rationalized, system of life, 0;] T)ut rather remained a succession of individual acts. •^'^' He could use them as occasion demanded, to atone for ^ {3 particular sins, to better his chances for salvation, or, >^ toward the end of his life, as a sort of insurance premium. Of course the Catholic ethic was an ethic of intentions. But the concrete intentio of the single act / determined its value. And the single good or bad / action was credited to the doer determining his tem- L^ poral and eternal fate. Quite realistically the Church recognized that man was not an absolutely clearly defined unity to be judged one way or the other, but that his moral life was normally subject to conflicting motives and his action contradictory. Of course, it required as an ideal a change of life in principle. But it weakened just this requirement (for the average) by one of its most important means of power and education, the sacrament of absolution, the function of which was connected with the deepest roots of the peculiarly Catholic religion. 116
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~^j The rationalization of the world, the eHmination of Änagic as a means to salvation ,^^ the Catholics had not carried nearly so far as the Puritans (and before them the Jews) had done. To the -Catholic^^ the absolution of his Church was a compensation for his own imperfec- tion. The priest was a magician who performed the miracle of transubstantiation, and who held the key to eternal life in his hand. One could turn to him in grief and penitence. He dispensed atonement, hppe of grace, certainty of forgiveness, and thereby granted release from that tremendous tension to which the Calvinist was doomed by an inexorable fate, admitting of no mitigation. For him such friendly and human comforts did not exist. He could not hope to atone for hours of weakness or of thoughtlessness by increased good will at other times, as the Catholic or even the\ Lutheran could. The God of Calvinism demanded of his believers not single good works, but a life of good Ij works combined into a unified system.'^ There was no / place for the very human Catholic cycle of sin, repent-/ ance, atonement, release, followed by renewed _sin .' Nor was there any balance of merit for a life as a whole which could be adjusted by temporal punishments or the Churches' means of grace.
' The moral conduct of the average man was thus deprived of its planless and unsystematic character and subjected to a consistent method for conduct as a whole. It is no accident that the name of Methodists stuck to the participants in the last great revival of Puritan ideas in the eighteenth century just as the term Precisians, which has the same meaning, was applied to their spiritual ancestors in the seventeenth century. "^
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For only by a fundamental change in the whole meaning of life at every moment and in every action '^^ could the effects of grace transforming a man from the status naturce to the status gratice be proved.
The life of the saint was directed solely toward a transcendental end, salvation. But precisely for that reason it was thoroughly rationalized in this world and dominated entirely by the aim to add to the glory of God on earth. Never has the precept omnia in majorem dei gloriam been taken with more bitter seriousness.'^ Only a life guided by constant thought could achieve conquest over the state of nature. Descartes 's cogito ergo sum was taken over by the contemporary Puritans with this ethical reinterpretation.'^ It was this rational- ization which gave the Reformed faith its peculiar ascetic tendency, and is the basis both of its relation- ship'^^ to and its conflict with Catholicism. For naturally similar things were not unknown to Catholicism.
Without doubt Christian asceticism, both outwardly and in its inner meaning, contains many different things. But it has had a definitely rational character in its highest Occidental forms as early as the Middle Ages, and in several forms even in antiquity. The great historical significance of Western monasticism, as contrasted with that of the Orient, is based on this fact, not in all cases, but in its general type. In the rules of St. Benedict, still more with the monks of Cluny, again with the Cistercians, and most strongly the Jesuits, it has become emancipated from planless otherworldliness and irrational self-torture. It had developed a systematic method of rational conduct with the purpose of overcoming the status natura, to free ii8
The Religions Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
man from the power of irrational impulses and his dependence on the world and on nature. It attempted to subject man to the supremacy of a purposeful will/' to bring his actions under constant self-control with a careful consideration of their ethical consequences. Thus it trained the monk, objectively, as a worker in the service of the kingdom of God, and thereby further, subjectively, assured the salvation of his soul. This active__sei£=control, which formed the end of the exercitia of St. Ignatius and of the rational monastic virtues everywhere,''^ was also the most important practical ideaLüf Puritanism. "^^ In the deep contempt with which the cool reserve of its adherents is con- trasted, in the reports of the trials of its martyrs, with the undisciplined blustering of the noble prelates and officials ^^ can be seen that respect for quiet self-con- trol which still distinguishes the best type of English or American gentleman to-day .^^ To put it in our terms ^^ : , The Puritan, like every rational type of j asceticism, tried to enable a man to maintain and act '' upon his constant motives, especially those which it taught him itself, against the emotions. In this formal psychological sense of the term it tried to make him into a personality. Contrary to many popular ideas, the end of this asceticism was to be able to lead an alert, / intelligent life: Jthe most urgent task the destruction 6TN spontaneous, impulsive enjoyment, the most important / means was to bring order into the conduct of its ' adherents. All these important points are emphasized ' , in the rules of Catholic monasticism as strongly ^^ as in the principles of conduct of the Calvinists.^* On this methodical control over the whole man rests the
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enormous expansive power of both, especially the ability of Calvinism as against Lutheranism to defend the cause of Protestantism as the Church militant. ^^n the other hand, the difference of the Calvinistic /from the mediaeval asceticism is evident. It consisted in I the disappearance of the consilia evaiigelica and the accompanying transformation of asceticism to activity within the world. Ims not as though Catholicism had TCsTficted the methodical life to monastic cells. This was by no means the case either in theory or in practice. On the contrary, it has already been pointed out that, in spite of the greater ethical moderation of Catholicism, an ethically unsystematic life did not satisfy the highest ideals which it had set up even for the life of the layman .^^ The tertiary order of St. Francis was, for instance, a powerful attempt in the direction of an ascetic penetration of everyday life, and, as we know, by no means the only one. But, in fact, works like the Nachfolge Christi show, through the manner in which their strong influence was exerted, that the way of life preached in them was felt to be something higher than the everyday morality which sufficed as a minimum, and that this latter was not measured by such standards as Puritanism demanded. Moreover, the practical use made of certain institutions of the Church, above all of indulgences inevitably counteracted the tendencies, toward systematic worldly asceticism. For that reason it was not felt at the time of the Reformation to be merely an unessential abuse, but one of the most fundamental evils of the Church.
But the most important thing was the fact that the man who, par excellence , lived a rational life in the 1 20
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The Keligioiis Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
religious sense was, and remained, alone the monk, 'hus asceticism, the more strongly it gripped an individual, simply served to drive him farther away ifrom everyday life, because the holiest task was defin- itely to surpass all worldly morality.®^ Luther, who was not in any sense fulfilling any law of development, but acting upon his quite personal experience, which was, though at first somewhat uncertain in its practical consequences, later pushed farther by the political situation, had repudiated that tendency, and Calvinism simply took this over from him.^' Sebastian FranckA struck the central characteristic of this type of religion when he saw the signifix^ncfi-DfLhe^ Reformation in the fact that now every_Chnstian had to be a monk all his-- lifg^ The drain of asceticism from everyday worldly life had been stopped by a dam, and those passionately spiritual natures which had formerly supplied the highest type of monk were now forced to pursue their
ascetic iHealg wjthin mnnHanp n^-nipptinn«^
But in the course of its development Calvinisi added something positive-to thisT— the- idea of- the \ necessity__o£4inmng— one's faitk-in worldly activity.^ l Therein it gave the broader ' groups of religiously / inclined people a positive incentive to asceticism. By^ founding its ethic in the doctrine of predestination, it substituted for the spiritual aristocracy of monks out-L_ side of and above the world the spiritual aristocracy of the predestined saints of God within the world .^^ It was an aristocracy which, with its character indelebilis, V^ was divided from the eternally damned remainder of humanity by a more impassable and in its invisibility niore terrifying gulf,^^ than separated the monk of the
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Middle Ages from the rest of the world about him, a gulf which penetrated all social relations with its sharp brutality. This consciousness of divine grace of the elect and holy was accompanied by an attitude toward the sin of one's neighbour, not of sympathetic under- standing based on consciousness of one's own weakness, but of hatred and contempt for him as an enemy of God bearing the .signs of eternal damnation. ^^ This sort of feeling was capable of such intensity that it sometimes resulted in the formation of sects. This was the case when, as in the Independent movement of the seventeenth century, the genuine Calvinist doctrine that the glory of God required the Church to bring the damned under the law, was outweighed by the con- viction that it was an insult to God if an unregenerate soul should be admitted to His house and partake in the sacraments, or even, as a minister, administer them.®^ Thus, as a consequence of the doctrine of proof, the Donatist idea of the Church appeared, as in the case of the Calvinistic Baptists. The full logical consequence of the demand for a pure Church, a community of those proved to be in a state of grace, was not often drawn by forming sects. Modifications in the constitution of the Church resulted from the attempt to separate regenerate from unregenerate Christians, those who were from those who were not prepared for the sacrament, to keep the government of the Church or some other privilege in the hands of the former, and only to ordain ministers of whom there was no question. ^^
The norm by which it could always measure itself, of which it was evidently in need, this asceticism 122
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naturally found in the Bible. It is important to note that the well-known bibliocracy of the Calvinists held the moral precepts of the Old Testament, since it was fully as authentically revealed, on the same level of esteem as those of the New. It was only neces- sary that they should not obviously be applicable only to the historical circumstances of the Hebrews, or have been specifically denied by Christ. For the believer, the law was an ideal though never quite attainable norm^* while Luther, on the other hand, originally had prized freedom from subjugation to the law as a divine privilege of the believer. ^^ The influence of the God-fearing but perfectly unemotional wisdom of the Hebrews, which is expressed in the books most read by the Puritans, the Proverbs and the Psalms, can be j felt in their whole attitude toward life. In particular, / its rational suppression of the mystical, in fact the whole emotional side of religion, has rightly been attributed by Sanford^® to the influence of the Old Testament. But this Old Testament rationalism was as such essentially of a small bourgeois, traditionalistic type, and was mixed not only with the powerful pathos of the prophets, but also with elements which encour- aged the development of a peculiarly emotional type of religion even in the Middle Ages.^' It was thus in the last analysis the peculiar, fundamentally ascetic, char- acter of Calvinism itself which made it select and assimilate those elements of Old Testament religion which suited it best.
Now that systematization of ethical conduct which the asceticism of Calvinistic Protestantism had in common with the rational forms of life in the Catholic
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orders is expressed quite superficially in the way in which the conscientious Puritan continually super- vised^^ his own state of grace. To be sure, the religious account-books in which sins, temptations, and progress made in grace were entered or tabulated were common to both the most enthusiastic Reformed circles^^ and some parts of modern Catholicism (especially in France), above aU under the influence of the Jesuits. But in Catholicism it served the purpose of complete- ness of the confession, or gave the directeur de Vame a basis for his authoritarian guidance of the Christian (mostly female). The Reformed Christian, however, felt his own pulse with its aid. It is mentioned by all the moralists and theologians, while Benjamin Frank- lin's tabulated statistical book-keeping on 'his progress in the different virtues is a classic example. ^^^ On the other hand, the old mediaeval (even ancient) idea of God's book-keeping is carried by Bunyan to the characteristically tasteless extreme of comparing the relation of a sinner to his God with that of customer and shopkeeper. One who has once got into debt may well, by the product of all his virtuous acts, succeed in paying off the accumulated interest but never the principal. ^^^
As he observed his own conduct, the later Puritan also observed that of God and saw His finger in all the details of life. And, contrary to the strict doctrine of Calvin, he always knew why God took this or that measure. The process of sanctifying life could thus almost take on the character of a business enterp rise. ^^^ A thoroughgoing Christianization of the whole of life was the consequence of this methodical quality of 124
The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
ethical conduct into which Calvinism as distinct from Lutheranism forced men. That this rationajitx__a[as-^ decisive in its influence on practical life must always be borne in mind in order rightly to understand the influence of Calvinism. On the one hand we can see that it took this element to exercise such an influence at all. But other faiths as well necessarily had a similar influence when their ethical motives were the same in this decisive point, the doctrine of proof. K-So-iar we haveconsidered only Calyinismj^ and have thus flSRumed therfnrtnne of nredestinatinn as the
dogmatic background of the Puritan morality in the sense of melTiodically rationaliyH pthjc^WvynHiirt This could be done because the influence of thaTHogma in fact extended far beyond the single religious group which held in all respects strictly to Calvinistic prin- ciples, the Presbyterians. Not only the Independent Savoy Declaration of 1658, but also the Baptist Con- fession of Hanserd Knollyof 1689 contained it, and it had a place within Methodism. Although John Wesley, the great organizing genius of the movement, was a believer in the universality of Grace, one of the great agitators of the first generation of Methodists and their most consistent thinker, Whitefield, was an adherent of the doctrine. The same was true of the circle around Lady Huntingdon, which for a time had considerable influence. It was this doctrine in its magnificent con- sistency which, in the fateful epoch of the seventeenth century, upheld the belief of the militant defenders of the holy life that they were weapons in the hand of God, and executors of His providential will.^^^ More- over, it prevented a premature collapse into a purely
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The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
utilitarian doctrine of good works in this world which would never have been capable of motivating such tremendous sacrifices for non-rational ideal ends.
The combination of faith in absolutely valid norms with absolute determinism and the complete trans- cendentality of God was in its way a product of great genius. At the same time it was, in principle, very much more modern than the milder doctrine, making greater concessions to the feelings which subjected God to the moral law. Above all, we shall see again and again how fundamental is the idea of proof for our problem, Since its practical significance as a psycho- logical basis for rational morality could be studied in such purity in the doctrine of predestination, it was best to start there with the doctrine in its most con- sistent form. But it forms a recurring framework for the connection between faith and conduct in the denominations to be studied below. Within the Pro- testant movement the consequences which it inevitably had for the ascetic tendencies of the conduct of its first adherents form in principle the strongest antithesis to the relative moral helplessness of Lutheranism. The Lutheran gratia amissibilis, which could always be regained through penitent contrition evidently, in itself, contained no sanction for what is for us the most important result of ascetic Protestantism, a systematic rational ordering of the moral life as a whole .1^* The Lutheran faith thus left the spontaneous vitality of impulsive action and naive emotion more nearly un- changed. The motive to constant self-control and thus to a deliberate regulation of one's own life, which the gloomy doctrine of Calvinism gave, was lacking. A
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religious genius like Luther could live in this atmo- sphere of openness and freedom without difficulty and, so long as his enthusiasm was powerful enough, without danger of falling back into the status naturalis. That 1^ simple, sensitive, and peculiarly emotional form of piety, which is the ornament of many of the highest types of Lutherans, like their free and spontaneous morality, finds few parallels in genuine Puritanism, but many more in the mild Anglicanism of such men as Hooker, Chillingsworth, etc. But for the everyday Lutheran, even the able one, nothing was more certain than that he was only temporarily, as long as the single confession or sermon affected him, raised above the status naturalis.
There was a great difference which was very striking to contemporaries between the moral standards of the courts of Reformed and of Lutheran princes, the latter often being degraded by drunkenness and vulgarity .^^^ Moreover, the helplessness of the Lutheran clergy, with their emphasis on faith alone, against the ascetic Baptist movement, is well known. The typical German quality often called good nature (Gemütlichkeit) or naturalness contrasts strongly', even in the facial expressions of people, with the effects of that thorough destruction of the spontaneity of the status naturalis in the Anglo-American atmosphere, which Germans are accustomed to judge unfavourably as narrowness, unfreeness, and inner constraint. But the differences of conduct, which are very striking, have clearly originated in the lesser degree of ascetic penetration of life in Lutheranism as distinguished from Calvinism. The antipathy of every spontaneous child of nature to
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everything ascetic is expressed in those feeHngs. The
fact is that Lutheranism, on account of its doctrine of
gracejä-cked a psychological sanction of systematic con-
luct to compel the methodical rationalization of life.
This sanction, which conditions the ascetic character of religion, could doubtless in itself have been furnished by various different religious motives, as we shall soon see. The Calvinistic doctrine of predestination was only one of several possibilities. But nevertheless we have become convinced that in its way it had not only a quite unique consistency, but that its psychological effect was extraordinarily powerful. ^^^ In comparison with it the non-Calvinistic ascetic movements, con- sidered purely from the view-point of the religious motivation of asceticism, form an attenuation of the inner consistency and power of Calvinism.
But even in the actual historical development the situation was, for the most part, such that the Calvinistic form of asceticism was either imitated by the other ascetic movements or used as a source of inspiration or of CQmparison in the development of their divergent principles. Where, in spite of a different doctrinal basis, similar ascetic features have appeared, this has gener- ally been the result of Church organization. Of this we shall come to speak in another connection.^^^
B. Pietism
Historically the doctrine of predestination is also the starting-point of the ascetic movement usually known as Pietism. In so far as the movement remained within the Reformed Church, it is almost impossible to draw 128
The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
the line between Pietistic and non-Pietistic Calvinists.^^® Almost all the leading representatives of Puritanism are sometimes classed among the Pietists. It is even quite legitimate to look upon the whole connection between predestination and the doctrine of proof, with its fundamental interest in the attainment of the certitudo salutis as discussed above, as in itself a Pietistic develop- ment of Calvin's original doctrines. The occurrence of ascetic revivals within the Reformed Church was, especially in Holland, regularly accompanied by a regeneration of the doctrine of predestination which had been temporarily forgotten or not strictly held to. Hence for England it is not customary to use the term Pietism at alL^^^
But even the Continental (Dutch and Lower Rhenish) Pietism in the Reformed Church was, at least funda- mentally, just as much a simple intensification of the Reformed asceticism as, for instance, the doctrines of Bailey. The emphasis was placed so strongly on the praxis pietatis that doctrinal orthodoxy was pushed into the background; at times, in fact, it seemed quite a matter of indifference. Those predestined for grace could occasionally be subject to dogmatic error as well as to other sins and experience showed that often those Christians who were quite uninstructed in the theology of the schools exhibited the fruits of faith most clearly, while on the other hand it became evident that mere knowledge of theology by no means guaranteed the proof of faith through conduct .^^^
Thus election could not be proved by theological learning at all.^^^ Hence Pietism, with a deep distrust of the Church of the theologians, ^i- to which — this is
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characteristic of it — it still belonged officially, began to gather the adherents oi the praxis pietatis in conventicles removed from the world .^^^ It wished to make the in- visible Church of the elect visible on this earth. Without going so far as to form a separate sect, its members attempted to live, in this community, a life freed from all the temptations of the world and in all its details dictated by God's will, and thus to be made certain of their own rebirth by external signs manifested in their daily conduct. Thus the ecclesiola of the true converts — this was common to all genuinely Pietistic groups — wished, by means of intensified asceticism, to enjoy the blissfulness of community with God in this life.
Now this latter tendency had something closely related to the Lutheran unio mystica, and very often led to a greater emphasis on the emotional side of religion than was acceptable to orthodox Calvinism. In fact this may, from our view-point, be said to be the decisive characteristic of the Pietism which developed within the Reformed Church. For this element of emotion, which was originally quite foreign to Calvin- ism, but on the other hand related to certain mediaeval forms of religion, led religion in practice to strive for the enjoyment of salvation in this world rather than to engage in the ascetic struggle for certainty about the future world. Moreover, the emotion was capable of such intensity, that religion took on a positively hys- terical character, resulting in the alternation which is familiar from examples without number and neuro- pathologically understandable, of half-conscious states of religious ecstasy with periods of nervous exhaustion, which were felt as abandonment by God. The effect 130
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was the direct opposite of the strict and temperate discipHne under which men were placed by the syste- matic life of hoHness of the Puritan. It meant a weaken- ing of the inhibitions which protected the rational personality of the Calvinist from his passions .^^* Similarly it was possible For the Calyinistic idea of the^ depravity oF the fleih, taken emotionally, for instance in the form of the so-called womT^feeling, to lead to a deadening oF enterprise in worldly activity .^^^ Even the doctrine of predestination could lead to fatalism if, contrary to the predominant tendencies of rational Calvinism, it were made the object of emotional con- templation .^^^ Finally, the desire to separate the elect from the world could, with a strong emotional intensity, lead to a sort of monastic community life of half- communistic character, as the history of Pietism, even within the Reformed Church, has shown again and again .^^^
But so long as this extreme effect, conditioned by this emphasis on emotion, did not appear, as long as Reformed Pietism strove to make sure of salvation within the everyday routine of life in a worldly calling, the practical effect of Pietistic principles was an even stricter ascetic control of conduct in the calling, which provided a still more solid religious basis for the ethic of the calling, than the mere worldly respectability of the normal Reformed Christian, which was felt by the superior Pietist to be a second-rate Christianity. The religious aristocracy of the elect, which developed in every form of Calvinistic asceticism, the more seriously it was taken, the more surely, was then organized, in Holland, on a voluntary basis in the form of conven-
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tides within the Church. In EngHsh Puritanism, on the other hand, it led partly to a virtual differentiation between active and passive Christians within the Church organization, and partly, as has been shown above, to the formation of sects.
On the other hand, the development of German Pietism from a Lutheran basis, with which the names of Spener, Francke, and Zinzendorf are connected, led away from the doctrine of predestination. But at the same time it was by no means outside the body of ideas of which that dogma formed the logical climax, as is especially attested by Spener's own account of the influence which English and Dutch Pietism had upon him, and is shown by the fact that Bailey was read in his first conventicles.^^®
From our special point of view, at any rate. Pietism meant simply the penetration of methodically controlled and supervised, thus of ascetic, conduct into the non- ^alvinistic denominations .^^^ But Lutheranism neces- sarily felt this rational asceticism to be a foreign element, and the lack of consistency in German Pietistic doc- trines was the result of the difficulties growing out of that fact. As a dogmatic basis of systematic religious conduct Spener combines Lutheran ideas with the specifically Calvinistic doctrine of good works as such which are undertaken with the "intention of doing honour to God".^^^ He also has a faith, suggestive of Calvinism, in the possibility of the elect attaining a relative degree of Christian perfection .^^^ But the theory lacked consistency. Spener, who was strongly influenced by the mystics ,^^2 attempted, in a rather uncertain but essentially Lutheran manner, rather to 132
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describe the systematic type of Christian conduct which was essential to even his form of Pietism than to justify it. He did not derive the certitudo saliitishom. sanctification ; instead of the idea of proof, he adopted Luther's somewhat loose connection between faith and works, which has been discussed above. ^^^
But again and again, in so far as the rational and ascetic element of Pietism outweighed the emotional, the ideas essential to our thesis maintained their place. These were: (i) that the methodical development of / one's own state of grace to a higher and higher degree of certainty and perfection in terms of the law was a sign of grace ^2*; and (3) that "God's Providence works through those in such a state of perfection", i.e. in that He gives them His signs if they wait patiently and deliberate methodically .^^^ Labour in a calling was also the ascetic activity /»ar excellence for A. H. Francke ^2^; that God Himself blessed His chosen ones through the success of their labours was as undeniable to him as we shall find it to have been to the Puritans.
And as a substitute for the double decree Pietism worked out ideas which, in a way essentially similar to Calvinism, though milder, established an aristocracy of the elect^^' resting on God's especial grace, with all the psychological results pointed out above. Among them belongs, for instance, the so-called doctrine of Terminism,^28 ^hich was generally (though unjustly) attributed to Pietism by its opponents. It assumes that grace is offered to all men, but for everyone either once at a definite moment in his life or at some moment for the last time.i^» Anyone who let that moment pass was beyond the help of the
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universality of grace ; he was in the same situation as those neglected by God in the Calvinistic doctrine. Quite close to this theory was the idea which Francke took from his personal experience, and which was very widespread in Pietism, one may even say predomi- nant, that grace could only become effective under certain unique and peculiar circumstances, namely, after previous repentance .^^^ Since, according to Pietist doctrine, not everyone was capable of such experiences, those who, in spite of the use of the ascetic methods recommended by the Pietists to bring it about, did not attain it, remained in the eyes-t)f the regenerate a sort of passive Christian. On the other hand, by the creation of a rnethodjto_induce repentance even the attainment of divine grace became in effect an object of rational human activity.
Moreover, the antagonism to the private confessional, which, though not shared by all — ^for instance, not by Francke — ^was characteristic of many Pietists, especially, as the repeated questions in Spener show, of Pietist pastors, resulted from this aristocracy of grace. This antagonism helped to weaken its ties with Lutheranism. The visible effects on conduct of grace gained through repentance formed a necessary criterion for admission to absolution; hence it was impossible to let contritio alone suffice .^^^
Zinzendorf's conception of his own religious posi- tion, even though it vacillated in the face of attacks from orthodoxy, tended generally toward the instru- mental idea. Beyond that, however, the doctrinal standpoint of this remarkable religious dilettante, as Ritschl calls him, is scarcely capable of clear formula-
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tion in the points of importance for us.^^^ He repeatedly designated himself a representative of Pauline-Lutheran Christianity; hence he opposed the Pietistic type associated with Jansen with its adherence to the law. But the Brotherhood itself in practice upheld, as early as its Protocol of August 12, 1729, a standpoint which in many respects closely resembled that of the Gal- vinistic aristocracy of the elect.^^^ And in spite of his repeated avowals of Lutheranism/^* he permitted and encouraged it. The famous stand of attributing the Old Testament to Christ, taken on November 12, 1741, was the outward expression of somewhat the same attitude. However, of the. three branches of the Brotherhood, both the Calvinistic and the Moravian accepted the Reformed ethics in essentials from the beginning. And even Zinzendorf followed the Puritans in ex- pressing to John Wesley the opinion that even though a man himself could not, others could know his state of grace by his conduct .^^^
But on the other hand, in the peculiar piety of Hermhut, the emotional element held a very prominent place. In particular Zinzendorf himself continually attempted to counteract the tendency to ascetic sanctification in the Puritan sense ^^® and to turn the interpretation of good works in a Lutheran direction.^^' Also under the influence of the repudiation of con- venticles and the retention of the confession, there developed an essentially Lutheran dependence on the sacraments. Moreover, Zinzendorf 's peculiar principle that the childlikeness of religious feeling was a sign of its genuineness, as well as the use of the lot as a means of revealing God's will, strongly counteracted the
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influence of rationality in conduct. On the whole, within the sphere of influence of the Count,^^® the anti-rational, emotional elements predominated much more in the religion of the Herrnhuters than elsewhere in Pietism. ^^^ The connection between morality and the forgiveness of sins in Spangenberg's Idea fides fratrum is as loose ^^^ as in Lutheranism generally. Zinzendorf's repudiation of the Methodist pursuit of perfection is part, here as everywhere, of his funda- mentally eudasmonistic ideal of having men experience eternal bliss (he calls it happiness) emotionally in the present, ^^^ instead of encouraging them by rational labour to make sure of it in the next, world .^'^^
Nevertheless, the idea that the most important value of the Brotherhood as contrasted with other Churches lay in an active Christian life, in missionary, and, which was brought into connection with it, in professional ■ work in a calling,^ ^^ remained a vital force with them. In addition, the practical rationalization of life from the standpoint of utility was very essential to Zinzen- dorf's philosophy.^** It was derived for him, as for other Pietists, on the one hand from his decided dislike of philosophical speculation as dangerous to faith, and his corresponding preference for empirical know- ledge ^*^; on the other hand, from the shrewd common sense of the professional missionary. The Brotherhood was, as a great mission centre, at the same time a business enterprise. Thus it led its members into the paths of worldly asceticism, which everywhere first seeks for tasks and then carries them out carefully and systematically. However, the glorification of the apos- tolic poverty, of the disciples ^*^ chosen by God 136
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The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
through predestination, which was derived from the example of the apostles as missionaries, formed another obstacle. It meant in effect a partial revival of the consilia evangelica. The development of a rational economic ethic similar to the Calvinistic was certainly retarded by these factors, even though, as the develop- ment of the Baptist movement shows, it was not impossible, but on the contrary subjectively strongly encouraged by the idea of work solely for the sake of the calling.
All in all, when we consider German Pietism from the point of view important for us, we must admit a vacillation and uncertainty in the religious basis of its asceticism which makes it definitely weaker than the iron consistency of Calvinism, and which is partly the result of Lutheran influences and partly of its emotional character. To be sure, it is very one-sided to make this emotional element the distinguishing characteristic of Pietism as opposed to Lutheranism.^^' But compared to Calvinism, the rationalization of life was necessarily less intense because the pressure of occupation with a state of grace which had continually to be proved, and which was concerned for the future in eternity, was diverted to the present emotional state. The place of the self-confidence which the elect sought to attain, and continually to renew in restless and successful work at his calling, was taken by an attitude of humility and abnegation .1^^ This in turn was partly the result of emotional stimulus directed solely toward spiritual experience; partly of the Lutheran institution of the confession, which, though it was often looked upon with serious doubts by Pietism, was still generally
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The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
tolerated .^*^ All this shows the influence of the pecu- liarly Lutheran conception of salvation by the forgive- ness of sins and not by practical sanctification.(l[n place ^of the systematic rational struggle to attain ana retain certain knowledge of future (otherworldly) salvation comes here the need to feel reconciliation and com- munity with God now. Thus the tendency of the pursuit of present enjoyment to hinder the rational organization of economic life, depending as it does on provision for the future, has in a certain sense a parallel in the field of religious life.
Evidently, then, thie orientation of religious needs to present emotional satisfaction could not develop so powerful a motive to rationalize worldly activity, as J:he need of the Calvinistic elect for proof with their exclusive preoccupation with the beyond. On the other hand, it was considerably more favourable to the methodical penetration of conduct with religion__than the traditionalistic faith of the orthodox Lutheran, bound as it was to the Word and the sacraments. On the whole Pietism from Francke and Spener to Zinzen- dorf tended toward increasing emphasis on the emotional side. But this was not in any sense the expression of an immanent law of development. The differences resulted from differences of the religious (and social) environments from which the leaders came. We cannot enter into that here, nor can we discuss how the peculiarities of German Pietism have affected its social and geographical extension .^^^ We must again remind ourselves that this emotional Pietism of course shades off into the way of life of the Puritan elect by quite gradual stages. If we can, at
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The Religions Foundations of Worldly Asceticism
least provisionally, point out any practical consequence of the difference, we may say that the virtues favoured by Pietism were more those on the one hand of the I* faithful official, clerk, labourer, or domestic worker.^^i and on the other of the predominantly patriarchal employer with a pious condescension (in Zinzendorf 's manner). Calvinism, in comparison, appears to be more
I closely related to the hard legalism and the active ;^ enterprise of bourgeois-capitalistic entrepreneurs. ^^^ finally, the purely emotional form of Pietism is, as Ritschl 1^^ has pointed out, a religious dilettantism for the leisure classes. However far this characterization falls short of being exhaustive, it helps to explain certain differences in the character (including the economic character) of peoples which have been under the influence of one or the other of these two ascetic movements.