Catholic notion of trying to surpass worldly morality by monastic asceticism

All you can do is work hard IN THIS WORLD.

Further: idea of value of fulfilling of duty in worldly affairs as highest form of moral activity.

The idea of 'a calling' - a life-task - is peculiar to Protestants.Asceticism and The Spirit of Capitalism. ascetic Protestantism: Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism and the Baptist sects. The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism.Protestantism had a further new development, which was the valuation of the fulfillment of duty in worldly affairs as the highest form which the moral activity of an individual could assume and this is in CONTRAST to trying to surpass worldly morality by monastic asceticism.The idea of a calling - a life-task, a definite field in which to work - is peculiar to Protestants.What is the origin of the irrational element which lies at the basis of this particular concrete form of rational thought: the conception of a calling.The interesting question is WHERE DID THIS SITUATION COME FROM?.The Reformation and church control over EDL.Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification.In this book, we will treat ONLY ONE SIDE OF THE CAUSAL CHAIN, the connection of the spirit of modern economic life with the rational ethics of ascetic Protestantism.

Rationalism of Western culture extends to many fields.

Characteristics of modern Western capitalism.

Capitalism as most important force in modern life.

MAX WEBER The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-5) 1

Asceticism and the spirit of capitalism