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Max Weber on Churches and in North America: An Alternative Path toward Rationalization Author(s): Colin Loader and Jeffrey C. Alexander Source: , Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring, 1985), pp. 1-6 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/202165 Accessed: 27/05/2010 13:27

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http://www.jstor.org ON CHURCHES AND SECTS IN NORTH AMERICA: AN ALTERNATIVE PATH TOWARD RATIONALIZATION

COLIN LOADER AND JEFFREY C. ALEXANDER

The following essay by Max Weber, "Churches other hand, enthralled by the new, held out for a and Sects in North America,"appears here in English more considered opinion. During the four months for the first time, which is curiousgiven the manifest of his stay, he sought out ordinaryAmericans in all relevance of its subject matter. The reason for this walksof life and almost every section of the country. oversight would seem to be the existence of later, The fruit of this activity,according to Marianne,was "revisedversions" of the essay,especially "The Prot- his discoveryof the "moralkernel" beneath Amer- estant Sects and the Spirit of ."'The ica's objectified shell. "Weber eagerly absorbedall latter, regarded in the words of one leading inter- this," she writes. "He was stimulatedto give effort- preteras "the attempt to give a more comprehensive lessly of his own resourceswhat was able to delight scope to his empiricalobservations [from "Churches these simple people, and thus he unearthedin them and Sects"] and to give them a scientific underpin- the treasures of the experiences of a lifetime (p. ning,"2 was among the first of Weber's essays to be 299)." Weber himself wrote that the trip had wid- translated.3 The implication seems to be that the ened his scholarlyhorizons as well as improvinghis later version is more comprehensive and sophisti- health. "Its fruits in this respect can, of course, not cated, hence that the original is superfluous. We be seen for some time (p. 304)." disagree,believing that the originalis remarkablein What did Weber see in Americathat stimulated a number of ways, and even, in certain important him so? We believe that it was a glimmer of a way respects, far superior.4 First, the essay sheds new out of the "iron cage" of reified modern . light on Weber's intellectualbiography and the con- was depicted throughout the German tours of his scientific development. Second, it has universitysystem6 in dualistic terms similarto Fer- significant implications for the interpretive debates dinand T6nnies's famous set of types, Gemeinschaft which rage around the Weber corpus. Finally, it and Gesellschaft.The Gemeinschaftrepresented the retains contemporaryempirical and theoreticalsig- traditional,pre-industrial "community," which was nificancein its own right. Its implicationsfor a range seen as an organictotality in which an elite governed of differentspecialities are strikingindeed.s in the name of values common to the entire group. The Gesellschaft,on the contrary,represented mod- I ern, industrial"society," a mechanisticgrouping of individualswho felt no common will or values,shar- Weber's trip to America in 1904 came at an ing only a set of instrumentalends. The epitome of important time in his life, just as he began to emerge the Gesellschaftto most Germanacademics was mass from the debilitatingmental illness that had forced democraticsociety. Most importantly,the Gesellschaft him to withdraw from a promising academic career. was seen as something essentiallynegative7-as the In the year before his trip, he had written four major decay of the Gemeinschaft,as the dissolution of the essays-two on methodology, one which continued organicunity into an atomistic "sandpile"in which his agrarian studies from the 1890's, and the first material interests became independent from the part (unpublished before the trip) of The Protestant meaningfulideal realm. The process of moderniza- Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism-all of which moved tion from Gemeinschaftto Gesellschaftwas viewed, in him further away from the academicmainstream in these terms, as a tragic one in which somethingwas which his career had begun. Yet, while these studies irretrievablylost.8 It was to resist this trend that declared his independence from the old order, Weber mainstreamacademics sought to reinforce the tra- at this point had no positive alternative. ditional elites, which included, along with them- We believe that one potential positive programme selves, the nobility and the .9 crystallized for Weber on his American trip and that Weber never identifiedwith this traditionalposi- the residue of this crucial experience was formalized tion. The very forces which most academicssaw as in "Churches and Sects," published in 1906. Cer- the antidote to the Gesellschaft-Protestantreligious tainly in 's account of the trip one ideals,academic learning, the bureaucraticestablish- can see that it marked an important shift in Weber's ment and even the nobility-were describedby him personal outlook (Marianne Weber, Max Weber:A as contributors to the modernizationprocess.'0 In Biography,trans. Harry Zohn, New York 1975: 279- "Churchesand Sects,"for example,he describesthe 304). She records how the other German intellec- established(Lutheran) church of Germanyas indif- tuals accompanying the Webers were repulsed by ferent to values,as rigidlyinstitutionalized and overly the cold, impersonal products of the new world's abstract when compared to the highly committed "capitalistic spirit," which they contrasted to Ger- sects. In placing a rather mystical ceremonial ele- man "congeniality" (Gemiitlichkeit).Weber, on the ment beside an ambition for secular power, the

1 2 LOADERAND ALEXANDER

establishedchurch is seen by Weber as inherently origins to the .He distinguishes,then, hypocritical.Further, the church is identified with between "modernization"and "."While both the bureaucracyand the Germantradition the two can be coterminous,they are not necessarily of learning (Bildung),the basic components of the synonymous. Germanelite.11 Because these two concepts are not identicalfor At the same time, however, Weber was attracted Weber, he believes that in modern the throughout much of his work to the same dicho- "functions"of religioncan be maintainedeven while tomizingframework as his traditionalcolleagues, and the is altered. These functions can be to the same vision of decline. Insofaras these pow- fulfilled by secular groups, whose role is largely erful sympathies ruled his later work, he ascribed defined by the nature of the religious community only instrumental motives to modern actors and from which they grew. Historicallyprior religious groups, for values in modern society had become communities, then, established the dominant cul- dissolved into reified forms. In such a modern soci- tural code or schema, and the succeeding forms ety, ethical and moral problems are reduced to the embody this initial impulse. Thus, Weber wrote: existentialconcerns of heroic individuals.This treat- "The tremendous flood of structures which ment of modern society in Weber's later work, in penetrates every nook and cranny of Americanlife other words, conforms to the Gemeinschaft-Gesell-is constituted in accordancewith the schema of the schaftdichotomy. [religious] ''" (p. 36). The ethical and moral In "Churchesand Sects,"however, one sees another identityof contemporaryAmerican , par- view of modernity which stands more fully at odds ticularlyvoluntary like honorificorders with thatof Weber'scolleagues, a view whichbecomes and clubs, is determined by the moral and ethical very much muted in the later revisedversion of the qualitiesof America'searlier Protestantsects. essay. This aspect concerns the possibilityof break- This unusualunderstanding of secularizationleads ing throughthe iron cage. Weber, unlikemost other to a decisive critique of the univocal rationalization Germanacademics, did not seek to retreat to some thesis and, in turn, to an extensive elaborationof kind of organic Gemeinschaft,traditional or "mod- the decisive role played by in modernity. If ern." Any attempt to combine an organicunity with contemporaryinstitutions inherit an initial religious modernityrepresented the same inherent hypocrisy impulse,then rationalization,or modernization,cannot he saw in the establishedGerman church. Rather, be seen simply as an objective development which he sought a new type of Gesellschaftbased on a more possesses a purely universal,cross-national charac- complex form of rational conduct,'2 a form which ter. Modernizationoccurs within historically-spe- combined purposive rationalaction with an adher- cific "modes of life," modes which vary according ence to values. It was in "Churchesand Sects" that to the religion which is hegemonic at the outset of this new form made its appearance,reappearing only the secularizationprocess. Weber's concern here is occasionallyin the subsequentyears. Finally,at the particularlythe contrastbetween Americaand Ger- end of Weber's life, it took on a new, explicitly many. It is "the fate of us Germans,"he observes, 3 political form. that "the religious at that time [i.e., the Reformation,] meant a development that favored II not the energy of the individualbut the prestige of the 'office' " (p. 39).14In America, these religious We see three important elements in this essay: forces resulted in a "radicalidealism" (Mommsen, (1) the concept of "Europeanization,"(2) the MaxWeber, p. 76) which fostered ,flex- descriptionof the Americansect as a Gesellschaft,and ibility and . (3) the relationship of the sect to the American Weber sees in church and sect life, therefore, democracy. These elements are almost completely deeply contrastingmodes of modern social organi- absent from the revised version (see note 4). zation,modes which are established in the firstinstance Weber sees "Europeanization"as a form of sec- by the cultural codes of religious life. But Weber ularization characterized by "church"-like moral also traces in this essay on Americansociety certain indifference.To this phenomenon he contrasts an more specific consequencesof the sect .Its American form of secularizationin which "sect"- implications for economic life are widely known like commitment is adopted by nonreligiousclubs. from his more famousworks, for example,from The Thus, "Europeanization"means not simply secular- ProtestantEthic and the Spiritof Capitalism.In light of izationbut ratherthe encroachmentof the "church" "Churchesand Sects", it is worth noting one theme model of social organizationupon a more sect-like in that famouswork which deservesgreater empha- one. He is not talking, in other words, about the sis. Weber is more concerned with the institution- Gesellschaftencroaching upon the Gemeinschaft,for he alized forms that ideas take and the relationshipof believedthat Americahad no real organictraditional conduct to those forms than he is with religiousand entity, but about the encroachmentof one form of intellectualhistory per se. When discussingthe sects' Gesellschaftupon another. For Weber, sect-like reli- dedication, for example, Weber admits that they gion is not traditional, i.e., not gemeinschaftlich,a often displayindifference (p. 30); but he insists that denial which is consistent with his assignmentof its this is an indifferenceto dogma ratherthan to reli- CHURCHESAND SECTSIN NORTH AMERICA 3 giously-inspired ethical commitments per se.s1 alwayscompletely conscious of it as a mechanism Accordingly, when describing the baptism of the for his own materialand ideal ends(Zwecke). (p. would-be banker in (p. 29), he is 38) concerned not with the man's hypocrisy in terms of dogma but with his willingness to adopt the stan- Accordingly,Weber emphasizesthe rationalindi- dards of ethical conduct required for sect member- vidualismfostered by Americansects. Membership ship and success. in the sect was voluntaryrather than ascribed,and This focus on institutionalization, moreover, makes was based on the individual'sreligious "qualifica- it more clear here than in most of his other discus- tion," i.e., his ability to uphold certain ethical stan- sions that Weber sees capitalism merely as one form dards. Again, the example of the North Carolina of moder and rational activity among many; as such, banker is enlightening. He was not born into a the social and cultural conditions of modernity must religiousgroup in which he felt some kind of organic be established on more general grounds than by oneness with the other members.Rather, whatever pointing to the needs of capitalist development. his motives-commercial, religiousor a mixture of True, participation in Baptist or Quaker sects pro- the two-he made a conscious decision to join the vided would-be businessmen with respected credit- sect and uphold its ethical standards.While he will ratings. This should not be seen, however, as the reap certain advantagesfrom his position, he will main function of the Protestant ethic, but rather as also accept the responsibilityto constantly"prove" one particular institutionalization of a general cul- his worthiness.Should he fail to meet these individ- tural form. ual responsibilities,the contract is broken and he is This general cultural form ensures that even in excluded. His conduct reflects "cool " the most moder society there will be "on-going (Sachlichkeit)and "purposive activity" (Zwecktatig- inquiries about moral and social conduct." Such keit).The sect itself, then, is not an institutionwhich inquiries guarantee that the individuals with whom is somehow greaterthan the sum of its parts.Rather one interacts have the proper "socialqualities," qual- it is a collection of individualswho engage in recip- ities which are linked to achievement. Organizations rocal acts of "probation" for the sake of certain set standards for membership which are geared to individualideal and materialends. In this sense it is specific types of action, not to qualities generated a classic Gesellschaft. by birth. Membership, then, is open, and it is such Yet, the sect differsfrom the mainstreamGerman membership, or "achieved quality," that guarantees academic conception of Gesellschaftin that it is not the honorableness of the individuals with whom one barren of values.16While the conduct of the sect interacts. "The old 'sect spirit' holds sway with membersis rational,it is also stronglytied to values. relentless effect in the intrinsic nature of such asso- The best example Weber provides is that of the ciations," Weber writes, for the sect was the first Quakers,who are willing to undergo great humili- mass to combine individual and social ation rather than compromise their values. This in this way. In the sect, the religious qualifications vision of a modern actor whose very rationalityis bestowed on the individual by God could be evi- rooted deeply in standardsallows us to under- denced only by this-worldly action: "Life-long stand a nonutilitarianaspect in Weber's later dis- sober diligence in one's 'calling' appears as the spe- cussions of . In much of Weber's later cific, indeed, really the only, form by which one can writings,rational action takes on anti-valuativetones, demonstrate his qualification as a Christian and just as terms like "objectivity"(Sachlichkeit) take on therewith his moral legitimation for membership" an aura of reification.But even in his later writings (p. 30). In sect society, grace is an achievement by there is another vision of modern life which com- individuals, an achievement, ironically, which guar- petes with this prophesyof the iron cage. The anti- antees sociability. Sect-like organization, therefore, thetical notion is articulatedby the concept of com- is the only way to ensure trust in a differentiated plex rationality,which embodiesa substantivemoral and mobile society. definitionof rationalaction. Not until "Politicsas a " can one gain such insight into this con- ception of rational conduct as in "Churches and Sects. "17 Ill Our connection of these two essays is not arbi- It is important that in assigning the sect to one trary,for with its treatmentof the sects' relationship of Tbnnies's institutional ideal types, Weber chooses to Americandemocracy, "Churches and Sects" also the Gesellschaftrather than the Gemeinschaft.He writes: makes a contributionto the discussion of Weber's political ideas. His descriptionof the latter is espe- The individual [sect member] seeks to maintain cially positive, rejectingthe assertionsof those who his own position by becoming a member of a social see democracyas "a mass fragmentedinto atoms." group. ... The social association to which the Rather,he writes, Americandemocracy is filledwith individual belongs is for him never something exclusivities which promote high individualstan- "organic," never a mystical total essence which dardsand responsibilities.Democracy allows for flu- floats over him and envelops him. Rather, he is idity, so individualsare constantlyconfronting new 4 LOADERAND ALEXANDER situations for which there is no authoritative inter- It is the German establishedchurch, Weber notes pretation and new individuals with whom there is here, which subordinatesindividual values to the no ascribed status relation. New forms of control bureaucraticstate, grantingthe state legitimationin are demanded which are neither top-down nor return for certain privileges.The German bureau- rigid, but which are real and constraining nonethe- cracy was a reified system disguisedas a moral one. less. Democracy allows for the possibility of face- The machine, on the other hand, has no such to-face organization in a differentiated society. Only pretensions; devoid of moral legitimation, it does the sect-form could provide the control mechanism not representthe same threat to the ethical conduct which allowed this possibility to be realized. of the individual. The atomization decried by the German roman- Americansect organizationproduced at least two tics, Weber wrote, arose not from important qualities that Weber saw as crucial for but from bureaucratization. Here again one sees the politicalrejuvenation of :a strong indi- Weber turning the tables on mainstream academi- vidualism and a tendency to form cohesive social cians by attributing the reified type of Gesellschaftto groups open to all social strata.The sect, for Weber, a bureaucratic structure (as in Germany) rather than was a mass organizationwhose cohesiveness was to a democratic one. In the essay's only footnote (p. based neither on an organicspiritual unity nor on a 44) he refutes his friend Troeltsch's attempt to equate materialisticallyorganized interest; rather it was based "aristocracy," i.e., an exclusivity based on certain on individualachievement and responsibility.When, standards, with traditional institutions (conserva- at the end of his career, Weber returned to this tism). Rather, he implies, there is a traditional form critical study of comparative political morality, this of exclusivity, based on ascribed status, and a modern sect-inspired quality emerges as the now famous one, based on "personal qualities and achievements." "ethic of responsibility"-the only substantively The latter he sees characteristic of American democ- rational norm that can guide the modern political racy. vocation. Sect-like qualities were necessary if dem- The sects, Weber writes, gave "American democ- ocratic political institutions characterized by a union racy its own flexible structure and individualistic of moral commitment and rational perspective were stamp." But how did they do so? And how does this to emerge in Germany. For this to happen, the square with Weber's essentially negative description existing bureaucratic system-the iron cage-would of American machine (so visible and widely- have to be dismantled, a task Weber now assigned remarked upon in "Politics as a Vocation")? Weber's to charismatic political leadership. Weber's theoret- answer to the first question is that sect organization ical ambivalence, and the applied, programmatic nature produces the kind of individual responsibility and of this later work, led him to discuss the sources of complex rationality which, when transferred to the democratic change in this purely political, acultural sphere of politics, becomes the cornerstone of way. Yet it seems clear that one lineage of his "ethic democracy. Only sects, moreover, were able to instill of responsibility" goes back to his earlier emphasis these values in broad masses of people, especially in on the role of sects. The failures of his later theory the working classes. Ironically, it is this very radi- of plebiscitary democracy, in fact, may be connected calism of the sect which allows the it to Weber's inability to make this link explicit and 18 nourishes to be more firmly integrated, for in these distinct. nations critical and anti-authoritarian tendencies are The reasons for the eventual attenuation of Weber's positively incorporated into established communi- sect-church dualism can be linked to the predica- ties. Church-organized polities, by contrast, have ment Weber faced in 1906. Despite his admiration forced anti- "along the path of hos- for sect-democracy and American political life, Weber tility to the religious communities" (p. 39). saw no way of transforming the socio-religious con- Sects, however, do not become directly involved duct of Germany in a similar way. His optimism in politics. In fact, they are purposely apolitical, about the American Gesellschaftis matched by his refusing to grant any divine legitimation to the polit- pessimism about the German one. At the same time, ical structure or to court favor from the secular Weber saw the American sect-like institutions being . Weber sees the sects' demand for a threatened by "Europeanization," a fear that became constitutional guarantee of of conscience greater toward the end of his life.19 In the American as one of their great contributions to modernity. religious sects he had discovered a unique creature (Mommsen, Max Weber,p. 76). He realized that such which, despite its importance, was faced with a position could allow for machine politics, which extinction from the form of modernization that Europe was governed by zweckrationalefficiency and was as represented. Weber's earliest hope seems to have devoid of values as the bureaucracy which Germans been to find a home for that creature in Germany- contrasted with it. Yet, what comes through much indeed, to use his of the true underpin- more clearly in this essay than in his later treatments nings of American democracy to transform Europe is that Weber did not perceive the American political itself. This hope lay dormant until the turmoil at the machine as dangerous to individual responsibility. end of the First World War. Ironically it was at this Why not? Because this aspect of political life could later time that the revised version of "Churches and not be "consecrated" by an idealist system of values. Sects" appeared. In this later essay, some of the most CHURCHESAND SECTSIN NORTH AMERICA 5 important elements we have discussed were omitted, traditionalsociety. In takingthis tack he not only fails and the main effects of the sect phenomenon were to add anything new to the Protestant Ethic debate, but he fails to see the fundamentalrole of sect-life placed distinctly in the past. for post-traditionalsociety. 6. The best descriptionof the Germanuniversity system NOTES is in Fritz Ringer, TheDecline of the GermanMandarins one and 1. "Churches and Sects" first in 1906, (Cambridge,Mass., 1969), especiallychapters appeared April, two. in the FrankfurterZeitung, vol. 50, nos. 102 and 104, about sixteen months after Weber's return from 7. See Rene Kinig, "Die Begriffe Gemeinschaft und America.Three months later it in a revised Gesellschaftbei FerdinandT6nnies," KolnerZeitschrift appeared vol. 7 407. version in ChristlicheWelt, vol. 20, nos. 24 and 25 ftir Soziologieund Sozialpsychologie, (1955), p. academics did not use the (June, 1906). The revisions consisted of the addition 8. Many German actually of T6nnies's 1887 book until of the last two paragraphsof the present translation, terminology shortly before World War Weber himself the long footnote on Troeltsch and some minor addi- One-although does use the terms in this We have tions throughout the text. The text translatedhere is essay. simplified the use of terms in order to the essence of the later, most complete version. "The Protestant emphasize what was at issue. An sub-theme in the Sects" appeared in 1920 in the first volume of the important Germandiscussion was the role as distinct CollectedEssays on the Sociologyof Religion. of"society" from the academicssaw 2. , Max Weber:Gesellschaft, Politik typologizedGesellschaft. Many as a level subordinatedto the ideal und Geschichte(Frankfurt A.M., 1974), p. 80. See also society properly the comment of , the editor of the realm of values, which was embodied in the spheres of and/or the state. to consisted authoritativeedition of Economyand Society(Berkeley Society, them, of material interests and the and Los Angeles, 1978), which refers to "Churches basically relationships and Sects" as "an earlier (1906) and shorter version" resultingfrom those interests.When suchforces escaped from their subordinationto the ideal of cul- of "The Protestant Sects" (p. 1211). Stephen Berger, spheres ture and the ceased to be in "The Sects and the Breakthroughinto the Modern state, they simply society and instead became the a alter- World: On the Centrality of the Sects in Weber's Gesellschaft, negative native to the For discussionsof ProtestantEthic Thesis," TheSociological Quarterly, vol. ideal, organic sphere. different of this see Dieter 12 (1971), pp. 456-499, writes that Weber's "later aspects issue, Lindenlaub, im Verein analysisof the Protestantsects is a clearerand subtler Richtungskimpfe fur Sozialpolitik(Wiesbaden, Colin "German and Its continuation of [the] earlier work" (p. 489). David 1967); Loader, Modern vol. 48 On- Beetham, in MaxWeber and the Theoryof ModernPolitics Crisis,"Journalof History, (1976), Demand Kurt Marx (London, 1974), p. 214, similarly, refers to "The Supplement, pp. 85-119; Lenk, in der one. ProtestantSects" as a "laterreworking" of "Churches Wissenssoziologie(Neuwied, 1972), chapter and Sects." 9. In addition to Ringer, see ,Society and in 3. In FromMax Weber,ed. H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Democracy Germany(Garden City, 1969). Weber's work is "Man- Mills (New York, 1946), pp. 302-322. Also see Econ- 10. One concept missing from indus- omyand Society,pp. 1204-1211. chesterism,"with its implicationthat modern 4. The piece in Economyand Societyis much briefer than trial society was a foreign thing invadingGermany. "Churches and Sects." Moreover, while it has the 11. Two importantsymbols of this identificationused by advantage of placing the issue into the systematic Weber are the Fideikomissand Adolf Stoecker.Stoecker conceptualization of Weber's later work, it speaks (1835-1909) was the Lutherancourt chaplain,founder mainly of the political implications of sect life and of the short-lived Christian-SocialParty and an anti- makes little reference to Americansociety as such. It Semitic demagogue. He was among a group of con- also locates the effects of the sect phenomenon more servatives who gained the ear of the new emperor, in the past than does "Churchesand Sects." In "Prot- Wilhelm II, and helped turn him againsthis chancel- estant Sects," America becomes the exclusive focus, lor, Otto von Bismarck.(Part of their strategywas to but the essay deals almost entirely with economic gain the selection of one of their own as the successor implications and places the effects of the sect phe- to the chief of the general staff, Moltke.) As we shall nomenonalmost completely in the past.Neither essay- see, Weber attacked this yearning for secular power and this is perhaps the most important difference- on the part of the church. On one issue Bismarckand achieves the kind of generalizedmediation of moder- Stoecker did agree-the protection of the traditional nity which would seem to be the most distinctive establishmentagainst the forces of modernity, espe- quality of "Churchesand Sects." cially the workers' movement. While their methods 5. In light of these considerations,it is a surprisingfact differed (Bismarckpreferring the "stick" of repres- that, with the exception of the works by Berger, sion, Stoecker the "carrot" of social reform and Beetham and Mommsen cited above, Weber's theory demagogy),both representedpaternalistic authoritar- of sect-life and its relationshipto modern social struc- ianismrather than the voluntarismWeber so admired ture has receivedvirtually no attention.Beetham refers in the Americansects. to the topic only in a summaryof Weber's work on The Fideikomisswas a system of entailed land by Russiaand never discussesit in its own right (see note which an estate had to remain in the hands of the 18 below). Mommsen discusses the importance of aristocratic that owned it. Just prior to his sects to Americabut does not develop its implications American trip, Weber criticized this institution as a either in his article or in his more comprehensive force taking land out of the market system and works. Berger discusses the sects merely as the insti- encouraging the pseudo-aristocratizationof middle tutional form of the Protestant Ethic, emphasizing class landowners. In short, it promoted the identifi- only their role in the destruction of a "tenacious" cation of the middle class with the traditionalestab- 6 LOADERAND ALEXANDER

lishment and thus hinderedthe developmentof polit- for complex rationalityis that Mitzman is forced to ical responsibility.When Weber refers to the German treat the "ethic of responsibility"almost as an anom- church as a divine endowed foundation (Fideikomiss- aly. We, to the contrary, will describe it below as a stiftung),he is identifyingit with the traditionalpolit- central concept in Weber's later work. ical establishment.He is also emphasizingits lack of 17. It is difficult to relate exactly this type of "complex voluntarism.The owner of an entailed estate could rationality"to the formalconceptual distinctions among not voluntarily part with it, just as the church was the types of rationalaction that Weber introducedin bound to its members. the first part of Economyand Society, in part because of the we 12. Our argument, then, differs fundamentallyfrom the very problem are pointingto here: it was much one put forwardby Arthur Mitzmanin TheIron Cage: less conspicuous in Weber's theorizing and empirical An HistoricalInterpretation of Max Weber(New York, work during the years between 1906 and the post- war 1970), which holds that Weber's efforts to escape period. This complex rationalitycould be consid- ered a form of from the "iron cage" of contemporaryGermany were "value-rationality"(Wertrationalitit), directed in an entirely anti-asceticdirection. Mitzman though Weber generally conceived of this term as believes, moreover, that it was this kind of proto- relatingto rationalizedforms of religion, like Puritan- which were of mysticalattack on the Protestantethic which inspired ism, precursors truly "modern"rational action. Weber in the immediatepost-breakdown period after On the other hand, this complex rationality 1903. "Churchesand Sects" reveals, to the contrary, might be considereda form of "purposive-rationality" that it was Weber's very enthusiasmfor one form of (Zweckrationalitdt).Yet, while Weber certainlyintended that ascetic which provided such inspira- this form refer to contemporaryrational action, he tended to define this as instrumental in tion, and that Weber certainlyglimpsed at least one rationality a utilitariansense. significant way to escape from the iron cage which The of these two reflects the did not involve rejecting this tradition. In terms of very ambiguity types Weber had in a the conceptualizationof Weber's later writings, Mitz- difficulty conceptualizing complex that was both informed values and man is correct that Weber sought some way of re- rationality by the and injecting charismainto routinizedmodern life, but in disciplined by universalistic, contingent committments of the secular Donald the line of his thought that we are concerned with empirical age. here he conceived of this as follows: a national tra- N. Levine, in "Rationalityand Freedom:Weber and vol. 51 dition of sect-organizationreinvigorates and demo- Beyond,"Sociological Inquiry, (1981), pp. 5-26, and Steven in "Max Weber's of craticallyredefines the "office "upon which Kalberg, Types Cornerstonesfor the of Ration- modern rational-legalauthority rests. See especially Rationality: Analysis alization Processes in American Economyand Society,pp. 1204-1211. History," journal of 13. The reference to a "new form" is to "Politics ,vol. 85 (1980), pp. 1145-1179, both have political extensive accounts of the "multi- as a Vocation," which will be discussed in section III recently provided below. valent" characterof Weber's conception of rational- ity. Neither account, however, appreciates the pro- 14. In 1906, Weber wrote to Adolf von Harnack:"It is found that Weber's treatment an difficult and situation that none ambiguity permeates inherently typical and the contradictorycharacterizations of rationality of us [Germans]can be a sect-person, Quaker,Baptist, that result. Both miss the historicist of Weber's etc. Each of us must notice at first the domi- aspect glance characterization,and the in which his anxiety nance of, the institutionalchurch measured way basically, about modern rationality creates difficulties in his non-ethical and values." Quoted in by non-religious conceptualization.For the qualityof Weber's Mommsen,Max Weber, 83-84. shifting pp. rationalitydefinition, see Jeffrey Alexander,The Clas- assertion that Weber's sect- 15. Berger's (n.2, above) sicalAttempt at Synthesis:Max Weber.Volume three of is rather than theory "structural-organizational" TheoreticalLogic and Sociology(Berkeley and Los Ange- "psychologicalor cultural"(p.486) completely misses les, 1983). the of this which is a subtlety distinction, surely 18. It is the failureto see the relativelysubmerged theme refinement withincultural interpretation. of sect-democracy that mars David Beetham's fine 16. Ironically,Mitzman uses Weber's classificationof the study of Weber's "applied"political theory. Beetham sect as a Gesellschaftto support his argument that arguesthat in the writingsWeber dedicatedexplicitly Weber became increasinglytaken with acosmic mys- to topical political issues-in contrastto his scholarly ticism (pp. 194-201). He cites Weber's discussionof and systematic writings on politics-he emphasized a presentation by Troeltsch at the German Sociolog- the relation between politics and class forces to the ical Convention of 1910 in which Weber places mys- exclusion of the "importance of ideas." (See, for ticism at the opposite pole from sect-rationality.See example, Beetham,Max Weber, p. 201.) Yet, Beetham "MaxWeber on Church, Sect, and ,"Socio- acknowledgesthat Weber, in his major discussion of logicalAnalysis, vol. 34 (1973), pp. 140-149. However, the Russian revolution of 1905, listed the failure of here Weber does not advocate one pole over the sect-religion as one of the three majorreasons for the other, but simply elaborateson Troeltsch's typology. failureof Russiandemocracy (ibid., p. 205). It is true, Mitzman'serror would seem to be a faulty syllogism: of course, that Weber's approachto these issues was the Gesellschaftis an iron cage; the Protestantsect is a the instrumental one of Realpolitik.Nonetheless, Gesellschaft;therefore, the Protestant sect is an iron "Churchesand Sects" demonstratesquite clearlythat cage. The acosmic mystic Gemeinschaftstands opposed Weber's thinking about reform did contain another to this Gesellschaftand thus represents the alternative element, albeit one that became increasingly sub- to the reified iron cage. While Mitzmanpoints to the merged. existence of more than one form of Gemeinschaftin 19. See Weber, ","in Max Weber:The Interpre- Weber's thought, he seems unwilling to do the same tationof SocialReality, ed. J.E.T. Eldridge(New York, for Gesellschaft.The result of this lack of appreciation 1980), p. 197.